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There’s frigid air hitting his back with every silent step he makes as he approaches the altar with silent steps. The building feels eerily quiet, almost as if it was judging Ewron’s poor life decisions which each nearing step.
Ewron is here to right a wrong— because it didn’t matter what Ash told him, Ewron needed to do this for his own peace of mind. Assassins lived from the thrill of the hunt, killing targets, manipulating outcomes in their favour.
There was no thrill in accidentally killing a small child in front of their father. There was no hunt, no struggle. Just tragedy, grief and the bitter taste of guilt on the back of his mouth.
She hadn’t even fought back, no, that was the worst thing. The child had been awed by her new surroundings, and then she had been hit. Her blood had soaked her white locks, a mortal injury that killed her in the blink of an eye. And her father hadn’t even tried to kill Ewron for it. No, Ash had just watched motionlessly with grief stricken eyes as Ewron left.
It had been the federation's fault, Ash would then tell him.
It was the intruder’s fault for hiding behind the child.
Yet, it had been his sword the one that craved itself on the child’s skull, it had been his carelessness as he struck his sword the one that had killed her. Ewron was Ash’s blade, a double edged sword that had cost the other man his daughter— and yet, the man hadn’t discarded him for it. No, Ash had forgiven him.
Maybe that’s why he’s here, using powers he hadn’t used in years.
The last time had cost him a part of his soul, and this time it might as well take his life.
Messing with death was always a gamble to no one’s surprise.
Ewron kneels in front of the altar, his red panda ears flicking from nerves, as he starts his rounds of prayers. He closes his eyes, picturing the bright child on his mind, trying to remember every single detail.
The words flow from his mouth like a faucet, a mix of pleads and prayers. It’s during one of his pleads, the part of the ritual that grabs the past relationship and tries to bring the spirit using family bonds, where odd things start to happen.
Ewron opens his eyes, feeling the magic of his hybrid animal still leaking out to the altar, ready to watch the tiny girl appear as a spirit before gaining a physical form.
The little girl is not alone.
There’s a humanoid creature tenderly holding the child in its arms. There’s an orange inky substance falling to the floor, it moves, reforming into features before drying. It leaves an orange statue in its place.
“Oh kurwa” Ewron hears himself mutter.
Then it falls like dried paint does, orange flakes revealing pale peach skin.
It’s a little gross honestly.
Ewron can’t help but watch as all of the dried ink starts falling off the statue, it falls to the ground and dissolves. The creature doesn’t look like a humanoid drawing anymore. Each patch disappears until a girl stands there in the altar. There are two circular sunglasses framing her face, changing shades from oranges into soft pinks but hiding her eyes completely from view. There’s two strands of light brown hair longer than the rest that resemble squid-like tentacles and they are slightly orange too.
She resembles a squid, even without any hybrid trait on her.
“Hey? Uh nice place you got here”
Ewron just stays frozen watching the woman stretch and adjust her grip on the tiny girl. He hadn’t planned for any other creature to appear, it was unprecedented. Her voice echoed through the church, not a human not a human at all.
“Ookay, so you are just going to stare at me, like a weirdo”
“No! Look look, you just appeared, you literally were a statue, you can’t expect me to just ignore that! What the fuck?”
The creature approaches him, still holding the slumbering child, a sharp mischievous smile on her lips.
“Well, you kinda summoned me”
“No I didn’t, I was trying to revive Ash’s daughter”
Ewron hates how intimidated he feels in front of the creature, even if she seems harmless. There’s something disturbing about her, eerie, almost as if she’s enjoying the chaos she’s bringing to the world by just being there.
“You tried to summon every connection that Ash has with the spiritual realm, a rookie mistake really”
The creature grabs the girl on her arms, twirling in the air and making the whole place crackle with energy. He watches as Ghostie's now corporeal form bursts into giggles, white locks falling freely over the woman's sweater. She's somehow completely comfortable in the arms of the mysterious woman, almost soothed by her presence.
“You are not a ghost.”
The statement is completely stupid but Ewron’s confusion only serves to make the creature lit up with mirth, mischief falling out of her body in waves.
“Respectufully, what the fuck are you?”
“I’m Squiddo, nice to meet you Ewroon! I’ll save you the titles they are oh so very boring”
Ewron just looks at the creature, trying to search for any definition that might fit the being into this world. There’s none, no explanation, and it might just be the weirdest thing that has ever happened to him on this island. This creature knows his name, was it the translator working on real time or another reason? The woman seems to grin at his confusion.
It’s not like he can continue to prod at the being for answers since moments later various creatures start attacking him for the ritual, experiments that the federation likes to bring to make the people in the island nervous.
“Oh I don’t like that, I really don’t like that”
The creature squeaked, flying to the ceiling with the pale child in her arms. She looked nervous and jittery, almost scared of the monsters surrounding Ewron. She's also not with the federation oddly enough, if she were she wouldn't be asking about the creatures.
“That’s a major aura loss right there”
Ewron shouted as he forced his body to bend and dodge as many attacks as possible, a smug smirk on his face. The black corrupted monsters seemed to follow him, no matter how much he tried to defend himself. Ewron had no real weapons for this fight, he couldn’t really bring one to the ritual.
“They just look so gross, don’t act like you didn’t squeal when they appeared”
The creature called from above, shielding the child from the view.
“I did NOT!”
“You did, oh you did”
Ewron took a deep breath, trying to ignore how annoying the creature could be. It reminded him a bit of Katie in a way.
“Okay! Fine, look, I can’t leave without Ghostie and I also can’t fight these on my own!”
“Oh I don’t know how to fight you know? I’m a herobrine expert but these don’t look like normal creatures.”
Ewron jumped to the side, trying to avoid the attack of another creature. Squiddo had yet to offer any help beyond annoying commentary about his dodging skills and singing random tunes to the child in her arms. There's a couple of comments about different mods, creatures that she had defeated somehow. Ewron had no idea what the fuck she was talking about.
“Kurwa! Give me the child then so I can leave!”
The entity gasps dramatically, putting a hand over her heart as if she has been wounded by the mere suggestion. It makes the little girl on her arms burst into childish laughter while Ewron continues running in the cramped space.
“She’s mine, how could you ever suggest such a thing?”
“She’s Ash’s, you can’t just kidnap her!”
Ewron hisses, a part of his tail is bleeding sluggish from where one of the monsters had tried to claw at it. The whole thing stings yet he forces himself to continue moving, continue with the ridiculous arguments from the creature that is just above him, silent, contemplating something. A smile breaks through her face, eyes lighting with mischief in a way that makes Ewron tail puff from stress.
“Well, I’m dating her father so that makes her mine, no?”
She opens her eyes wide in an almost innocent facade, as if she hadn’t dropped the biggest bomb possible on his mind. How is he supposed to react to that? Ash the dictator, the cold leader of the regime, the one that had been flirted with a couple of times—had a girlfriend, some kind of all powerful creature.
“What?”
Ewron is so focused on the entity above that he doesn’t have time to dodge the next attack, making him yelp in pain. There's a gash on his side, blood slowly dripping through the black fabric, as he tries to maneuver himself into dodging.
Great, this was absolutely how he wanted to spend the rest of the night.
“Well that’s no fun at all.”
The entity drops a healing potion on his head, the glass shatters against the floor in a million pieces, yet doesn't cut his skin instead falling uselessly to the floor. It heals him enough to let him go back to dodging without much problem. Okay, priorities, first he needs to give the child to Ash, then he’ll take a nap.
“I still need to give ghostie to Ash, he was really sad, you know?”
That might be emotional manipulation but Ewron can’t think of another argument, not when he’s quite tired of running and dodging attacks left and right.
The argument makes the creature frown, she turns to look at the kid in her arms, carefully tucking a stray lock into her ear. She seems to consider his words, and yet, the child remains stubbornly at her side.
It lasts a few seconds, where he spends dodging and praying to not die right here surrounded by creatures and the consequences of his actions.
At some point, Ewron thinks he’s going to have to fight the creature for a child that could or couldn’t be hers. It’s not like Squiddo has been very trustworthy on the first place, and Ash hasn’t mentioned her once. Well, the leader doesn't really mention much of his own private life so there's no surprise there.
“Well, it was nice chatting with you, bye byeee”
The entity holds the child's hand, positioning it into a peace sign before mimicking one herself and vanishing both of them into thin air.
There's no fight, she's just gone.
Well, that was a waste.
Ewron finds himself running out of the church, eyes desperate to see if there's any trace of the child outside. He has no way to track this entity, not while he's running from the monsters surrounding him. The feeling of frustration mixed with helplessness makes him groan while he focuses on writing to Ash.
It's during this hollowness that he feels it, an unfamiliar and warm weight on the pocket of his robe.
Ewron debates with himself before curiosity wins, and he takes it out with a pout while he's climbing on a boat.
There's weird version of a netherstar, warm, and alternating between shades of orange and pink. It reminds him of the sunglasses that hid Squiddo's eyes. It's warm yet comforting, easing the frustration on his form. Ewron can feel the way his ears perk at the feeling, tail relaxing. Ewron swears he can hear the child's laughter echo through the glass.
It's an odd artifact, one that he doesn't understand.
He’s navegating through the ocean, communicator in his hands while he ponders on how to relay this message to Ash. How can you explain something you don’t really understand? How can he give the man another unsolved puzzle to stress the leader more? And so, Ewron spends the whole trip with his eyes locked on the netherstar, noting that it can still be used to make other items.
He’s passing through the main area, there's a beacon nearby and a few different buildings when the realization strikes him.
Oh, it’s a choice.
Squiddo is giving Ash a choice.
This can be used to create a beacon that would probably summon both of them out of the nether star or guide them there. Ashswag can use that to summon ghostie if he wanted to.
He can also keep both of them trapped inside of the jewel.
Surprisingly thoughtful for a creature like her.
And later that day, as Ewron tries to explain the absurd situation, he watches the clouded expression of the leader dissolve into an incredibly soft smile— an expression that he has never seen on Ash’s face. It reeks of relief shining through grief, of comfort, like someone had taken a heavy weight from his shoulders.
The look is vulnerable, so unfamiliar, that it makes Ewron avert his eyes like it’s something that shouldn’t be witnessed. Ewron, for once, doesn’t spend the time cracking jokes or arguing with the leader, instead they stay there in silence—letting the sound of the waves clear their thoughts.
Ewron feels slightly grateful that she stopped him from just reviving the child and giving her to her father.
Squiddo, ever the mystery, had somehow made sure that the decision of Ghostie coming back to life lay in Ash’s hands instead of being forced into it.
For the record, this doesn't mean Ewron likes the weird entity.