Messiah 14 : Sprain

They hiked, and hiked for hours to come. The noise of Roberia's leather boots and Katachi's sabots sounded clearly about the forest, as they walked along the riverside.

One would normally not hear footsteps next to a river - The sound of flowing water is usually enough to mask sounds like the crinkling and shuffling of grass. But the yellow substance in the river was much more viscous and thicker compared to water, and its flow is much slower in comparison - So the goo stream is actually very quiet. A bit too quiet.

They kept walking and walking, until eventually...

K : "!!" (Is that...)
R : "! There it is! That's where the water turns gooey!"

... They arrived at a part of the river where normal water and the goo intersects.

K : "... I figured as much..."

And at the bottom of the river, was a tiny pebble with a golden word on it.

凝.

K : "... ! That character..."

Katachi had seen that word before. He took out the ring dangled on his neck, and confirmed his suspicions. Sure enough, the Word of Power that lay at the bottom of the river, was the exact same as the one on his ring.

Roberia walked towards him from his back, and held his ring up to read the inscription.

R : "... Huh. Your name's a Word of Power?"

K : "Yeah, I... I think it is. That's right there, isn't it?"

Katachi pointed at the small golden word at the bottom of the river.

R : "... So, how are you going to get that one?"

K : "I don't know, but I'll try to, at least." (I'm not sure if I can lock it into the book from here, though. But it's worth a shot, I guess. 锁定! Lock within book - 凝!)

A coarse whisper gasped in his head, and the 定 he had placed was misplaced by a little bit, missing the 凝 at the bottom of the river by a few centimeters.

K : "!" (I can't focus on it properly?... Maybe the goo above the word is disorienting my focus on its position?)
R : "Did you miss? It's off a little ways..."

K : "It's okay, Roberia. I'm just trying the methods, they don't need to work on the first try." (锁定! Lock within book - 凝!)

The 定 went off its course once again, and this time Katachi squatted down to see for himself. It suddenly became clear why that method of obtaining 凝 was impossible.

On the goo river's surface was the word 定. The goo on the surface itself seems to have a sticky property that completely negates Katachi's ability to reach the Word of Power, let alone acquire it.

K : (This one isn't in a Sealed Room. That means someone whom had this Word of Power died in the river. The corpses down by the river... Have they also attempted their hand at this? Is that why they lay in the lake, dead?...)
R : "What's wrong? Did you notice something?"

He clenched his fist hard, and leaned over to the river.

K : (...I should be really careful about this.) "You should stand back, Roberia. I'm going to try a different method this time."

Katachi placed a 定 on his own chest, and slowly leaned his body over the river. With care, Katachi tried to stick his left arm down the yellow goo to fish it up.

*Cozy's Notes : Here's where he gets owned XD*

As he stuck his left hand inside the goo, he felt his hand slowing to a stop rapidly, and his left hand was being carried away by the 'rapids'.

K : "!?" (I... I can't pull my hand out?!)

The next thing he knew...

*crack*

K : "!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHGGGH!!"

The sound of bone snapping was heard.

R : "!! Katachi?!"

Katachi's left hand was still stuck in that position, but his hand was now dragging his body along the riverside, as he tries to pull his left hand from the goo.

K : "NNNNNGGGHH!! HHHHHNNNNNNNNGGGHHH!!!!!"

He pulled and tugged with a desperation and fervor that surged through his blood vessels. He felt the struggle to survive overcome his body, and he yanked at his broken left hand, with much difficulty.

His body slid across the grass slowly, but consistently. Katachi supported his right foot up, and changed his body into a kneeling position. The calm breathing he had changed into quick, deep breaths, sucking and exhaling the air out quickly. He was determined to pull the hand out of the stream.

R : "Hang on! I'm going to pull you out!"

Katachi bent his right ankle inward, to steady his body against the sliding motion along the grass. He then shifted his left foot into an upright position, and tried to stand up straight.

He felt the goo stuck to his left hand, threatening to pull his entire left arm out. A fear surged within him. Is he going to make it out alive? Will it succeed? Or will he simply lose his balance, and fall into the goo, just like the other corpses?

He didn't have the liberty to think about too much. The desire to live overwhelmed him, and he straightened his back and shifted his center of gravity backwards. He was determined to come out alive, even if it meant disarticulating his entire arm.

... Arm.

An arm wrapped around his torso from the left, and he felt a sudden jerk backwards. It freed him from the goo, and caused him to collapse backward, landing on his right.

*Cozy's Notes : If you don't understand what happened, Roberia used her left arm to grab Katachi by his chest, and leapt backwards. They landed on their right sides.*

But his arm was still intact.

Katachi was alive.

He couldn't tell how many times he's felt this relief, this joy of being alive, running through his body. It made his mind fuzzy, and he just wanted to rest, in exhausted relief.

R : "Katachi! Are you alright?"

From behind him, the warm sensation of Roberia's body heat seeped through his skin, and he returned to his senses once more.

K : "... My arm is still intact."

A sigh breathed warm air onto his neck, and he felt the warmth behind him disappearing as Roberia stood up.

R : "Good. Can you stand?"

Roberia stretched her left hand out at Katachi, to which he grabbed.

A pain flooded through his left arm.

K : "!!! Oww!!"

His left wrist was still sprained.

*Cozy's Notes : You might wonder : His 'status' is constant, so how can he get a sprain? Surely being in a constant status means he can't transition from normal --> sprained. This... Well, this needs a good bit of explaining, which I will have to do sometime soon. Not immediately, not now, sometime soon. But know this - The reason why his arm isn't ripped out from his torso is because of his constant status.*

R : "What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

K : "... My left wrist..."

Roberia examined his left wrist, and found the irregular bulge on his wrist.

R : "Let me see... Hmm. That's a pretty bad sprain, Katachi."

K : "Yeah. Dipping my hand into the goo river is definitely not the smartest option."

Roberia, in a fit of anger, slapped her hand onto his left tricep.

K : "!! Ow!"
R : "Of course it isn't!"

She was clearly angry, having slapped his old wound so hard it was throbbing red.

R : "Haven't you seen the corpses inside the goo lake? Don't tell me you forgot about them!"

K : "... I didn't forget! I really didn't, I just thought the Constant Status would let me defy the river's flow!"

R : "Well, you thought wrong, Katachi. Look at what happened to your left wrist!"

*** ***

*Cozy's Notes : Remember when I said that Cloud words, the small white faint clouds that appear next to the Words of Power, is actually excessive? It is. When you use Cloud words with a Word of Power, you essentially block out all other meanings the Word of Power can take on, and filter it into a single effect. But filtering it weakens its precedence level.

Too complex to understand? When a chemical goes through procession, the probability for the yield to remain 100% is impossible. Something will always be lost when you're extracting something useful from a mixture, be it the residue, the impurities, or simply some of the useful substance you need being retained on the filter itself.

Katachi's usage filters his own 定, weakening its precedence level, but the 凝 at the bottom of the lake didn't use any Cloud words at all. Though the effect it applies is random, it is raw and in full strength. It's also why his 定 cannot phase through the goo created with 凝.*

*** ***

Katachi headed further upstream, and took off his clothes spare his undergarments.

R : "Are you sure this will work, Katachi?"

He shook his head a little bit, showing his lack of confidence over the plan.

K : "... I don't know what will happen, Roberia. But, I would like you to stand further down the river, to catch my body."

R : "Catch your body?"

K ; "Yes. If I die from this, please-"

R : "Don't even talk about death! Just shut up and do it!..."

Her voice quivered.

Every time she's had a proper conversation with Katachi, death always seems to linger by his lips like it's some chant or curse. She hated that about him. She couldn't stand talking to someone whom could accept the word 'death' this easily.

K : "... Okay."

Katachi held a rather large rock against his chest, and dived into the river. He laid his body flat against the riverbed, and slowly drifted over to the intersection.

Just like the plants that grow on the riverbed flow with the rapids, he allowed his body to slowly drift towards the intersection, and his body entered the thick liquid slowly.

He held the rock in his hand, primed downwards. He checked for the position of the 凝 along the riverbed, and got into position.

The pace of the flow slowed drastically when he entered the yellow goo. It had become really, really sluggish, and now that his entire body was submerged into it, he felt the liquid's properties in full.

It was tough to move or even budge. It felt as if walls of cold, dead flesh sandwiched him, and he could only move a bit at a time. It was a wise choice preparing the rock in place, or he would have never been able to do it inside.

And he finally drifts to the part above the 凝.

He put every ounce of strength he had into straightening his right arm, and the rock touched the 凝 on the riverbed. Slowly, the goo around him started to change back to water.

It was smooth and cooling around him. What had been the feeling of being trapped and clamped between a tough wall of muscle was replaced with the fleeting rush of water.

He swam back out with his right arm outstretched, and reached the riverside, where Roberia waited along further down.

She had no need to wait for him that far down the river, but her concern for him made his heart feel light.

K : "Haa... Haa..."

Katachi laid on his back, and panted. The 定 on the center of his chest faded off, and he finally relaxed his whole body against the soft grass.

Its ticklish blades rubbing against the back of his neck was a welcoming sensation, and he drifted off to sleep.

*** ***

R : "So, Katachi, what does this word mean?"

The two of them began walking down the river, back to the Anikan borter.

K : "... I don't know, to be honest. But it's the same character as my name, so I won't be forgetting about this one anytime soon."

They were walking with their heads by each other, looking at the new addition to the thousand-paged book.

R : "... Huh. So you collect these Words of Power into this big paper book, but you don't even know them?"

K : "I'm not Anikan, so don't expect me to understand Anikan characters like these please."

Katachi's left wrist was tied with a straight stick, and his wooden dagger. The makeshift supports immobilizing his wrist wasn't much, but it helped to prevent the sprain from worsening to some degree, Roberia argued.

As they pondered over the 凝 now sealed within the book, they reached the clearing they had entered from. The sun was already beginning to set.

The bloody goo lake that deposited at a small trench on the hill has now transformed into a bloody lake.

K : "..."
R : "Hmm. Well, we reversed the goo to water, but I guess death can't be reversed to life."

Katachi heaved another short, tired sigh.

K : "... no. No it can't."

He closed his eyes in prayer, and prayed for the salvation of the corpses within the lake.

K : (Segus bless them. May Vithrolu release them from their suffering.)
R : "... Katachi."

K : "... Yes?"

R : "I was thinking, you see, maybe we should walk the long way about to the borter. If we approached the borter from their own forest, that would be too suspicious, don't you think? They might think we are fugitives or something, you see."

K : "... Yeah. Good point."

The two of them walked the long route around, down the hill, and back to the road they had started from.

*Cozy's Notes : And the next part is confusing because there will be a load of Chinese. seriously, I mean it.*