Lightseeker: A Flame of Disparity Story

by Cinders of War


Chapter 2: Theiros, City of the Lost

The journey to Veorea had been long and quite boring, with Rainbow constantly on the move around the ship, trying to find something to do. She got Fluttershy to steer the ship most of the time, but even if she was a strange one, she still needed her rest too, so Rainbow took over a little while Fluttershy got some sleep.

They hadn’t really spoken since leaving Canterim, except when Rainbow told Fluttershy what to do. She didn’t really know what to say to that girl, plus she didn’t know what kind of weird answers she might get, so she just let her be.

After a few days, as their food began to run out, Rainbow had finally spotted land from the crow’s nest at the top and signalled down to Fluttershy where to go.

Their destination was a dark and quite rundown city, its architecture looking like that of a graveyard. According to the map she had, this was Theiros, City of the Lost. It too had once been a thriving city, just like Yakhub Bay back at Canterim, but madness had taken over it and now people wandered the streets in search of flame.

“Wh-what do you think made all these people crazy?” Fluttershy gulped as Rainbow dropped the anchor, bringing their small ship to a halt.

The sky was a deep orange and the air around them smelled like burnt skin. That couldn’t be good. To add on to that already uneasy feeling, a shriek erupted from somewhere over the skyline, startling a flock of birds into the air and scaring Fluttershy so bad that she ducked to the lower decks of the ship in a flash.

Rainbow shook her head as she tied up the sails. No one ever said this journey was going to be easy. If she wanted her own light, she needed to be ready to undertake the tasks and she was ready. She couldn’t say the same thing about Fluttershy.

“Hey you.” Rainbow hopped over to the steps leading down to the lower deck. “Since we’ve arrived I’m going to head out. You do what you want now, yeah?”

“C-Can I come with you?” Fluttershy’s head ducked out from behind a barrel.

The last thing she wanted was to have that girl following her around again.

“I’d rather not. Why don’t you just go do what you want. Just don’t involve me, okay? Be seeing ya!”

Rainbow quickly left the ship and ran across the docks before Fluttershy could protest. Fluttershy needed to find her own way, whatever it is she came here to find. It would be easier for both of them.

The walk across the street towards the city was quiet and desolate, with not even a single person out and about. The Abyss had really taken its toll on the world since emerging from the Throne of Flames, now known as the Throne of the Fallen Hearth.

Rainbow found a trio of dead people, almost torn to shreds, with one of them missing most of his waist. It looked like bite marks and Rainbow shuddered to think of what would have done that.

A shriek rose up from the skyline again, it sounded like laughter this time. Scary laughter.

“Nothing to fear. Just keep going.” Rainbow unsheathed her shortswords and got ready for anything.

And it was a good thing she did. From one of the houses came a rather disfigured man. By the looks of it, he had already gone hollow a long time ago, now shuffling towards her with a cleaver in hand.

“Flame… dear flame…” he muttered.

“If anyone’s finding a flame, it’s going to be me!” Rainbow planted a kick into the hollow’s sternum, stumbling him back a step.

With a spin, Rainbow brought both swords across the hollow’s chest, cutting two clean wounds across it, then before he could react, she stabbed both weapons through his chest. The hollow dropped his cleaver, the fell beside it once Rainbow removed her weapons from his chest.

“Quite the joke, aren’t you?”

Rainbow kept herself low as she went up the street past the house the man had come from. The roads here were all cobbled as well, but trash littered the sides as though it hadn’t been cleaned in years. A pile of burning bodies sat on one side of the entrance to a park of sorts, while desolate wagons and carriages dotted the streets, long abandoned.

It looked like they were doing the same thing here too, killing others in their madness. Perhaps this darkness had already reached the four corners of the world. Rainbow shook her head. Now more than ever, they needed the Flames of Life to return to quell the Abyss before it was too late.

Rainbow Dash took a short flight of steps up a level and walked along a row of houses, some of them sporting claw marks across their doors. She shuddered to think what might have caused them.

The people here were mad, more so than the ones back at Canterim. At least back home, it was about ideologies. These ones seemed to turn into something worse, she didn’t know just what yet, but she really didn’t want to know just how far a hollow went hollow here. This seemed to be a type of hollow beyond anything she’d ever encountered before.

Without warning, something sharp slammed down into her shoulder and Rainbow fell to a knee with a gasp, turning to see a hollow with a beard, holding an axe that was now embedded in her shoulder.

Twisting her swords around, Rainbow stabbed them both back, spearing the hollow through the chest. He fell back without a word, and the girl quickly dislodged the axe and let out a cry of pain. She crushed a lifegem in her hand and the pain began to soothe slowly, but more hollows were already upon her. One was a woman with a spearhook in her hands and the other was another bearded man, this time wielding a wooden shield and a flaming torch.

Rainbow twisted her body around the spear as the woman thrust it forward, then she kicked off of it and slashed at the man with the shield, throwing splinters up into the air before she had to jump away from him. The woman with the spear came back, but Rainbow sidestepped her next attack and cut the weapon in two at the shaft, then kicked the woman down. The man came back and swung his torch around, trying to burn her, but Rainbow rolled past him and as she arrived behind him, she stabbed one sword into his back, then ripped it out and slashed his head off. The woman, now weaponless, was easily dispatched with a slash across her chest.

Taking some time to rest, Rainbow checked the wound on her shoulder to find it had already closed. She really liked lifegems. They were a little slow in fixing her up, but at least they gradually made you feel better.

Before she could wait long, there was a crashing of wood to her left and she found three more hollows with pitchforks falling over the abandoned wagon, with more following behind, like a mob of the Mad Horde back home. She had to move or they would surely overwhelm her.

Sheathing her weapons, Rainbow broke into a run and found her way up a short flight of steps to a row of houses on her right. She heard the mob’s weapons clanking against the railings at the staircase, but she didn’t stop to find out how fast they could run. 

All of a sudden, there was a growling coming from somewhere within the mob. Rainbow remembered the claw marks on the doors and she shuddered to think what was now after her. Screams of the mob could be heard as something began tearing into them, screams that made her hair stand.

At the end of her path was a solid gate and no matter how much Rainbow pushed against it, it wouldn’t budge. She was trapped here.

Turning around, she could see what was left of the mob, lying across the cobbled floor, some of them in more than one piece. A werewolf stood above their bodies, still holding the upper half of a hollow’s torso in its hands, its claws red and bloody. It eyed Rainbow, then tossed the carcass aside.

There was no way around this. Rainbow unsheathed her shortswords and got into a combat stance. She had to fight this werewolf creature here.

On cue, the werewolf ran at her on all fours, its claws scratching up sparks into the air as it ran, digging new grooves across the cobbled path, saliva flying from its opened mouth filled with razor sharp fangs. Rainbow rolled to the left as it swung one arm at her, its claws raking over the gate behind her and leaving deep grooves across it. As she got back on her feet, Rainbow Dash slashed at the beast’s hindlegs repeatedly, rolling again when it turned around and tried to grab her.

She sliced at its fingers and she managed to shear one off, but then it barreled past her and knocked her over. It spun around and tried to bite her head off, but Rainbow stabbed up with one sword and it went through the roof of the werewolf’s jaws and emerged out its snout. The beast clawed at her, but Rainbow jumped back and rolled away, standing at a safe distance until the werewolf tired itself out and stopped moving. Its body slumped over one of the railings and blood ran down its snout to the floor below.

“Cool. That wasn’t too bad.” Rainbow planted a hand under the werewolf’s jaws and lifted it so she could retrieve her shortsword.

With a sickening squelch, her sword was out of its snout and she let go, allowing the dead werewolf to limply droop back over the railing.

She eyed the gate the werewolf had scratched earlier. Its claws were powerful, carving huge gashes across the heavy metal. Even her shortswords couldn’t have done damage like that.

Pushing against it, she found the gate’s integrity had weakened and with a few solid kicks, it gave way and broke off, creating a small hole Rainbow could fit through. And she had to hurry. Surely her kicks would have been heard across the city.

Climbing through the hole in the gate, Rainbow kept her weapons and ran along the next area as quietly as she could, not wanting to attract extra attention. Her first goal was to get someplace safe so that she could plot out her next move and to glean out some information on where the sunlight maggot could be found. At the moment, that was all that mattered.

She wondered how Fluttershy was doing, but she was probably fine. She did have some skill with the bow, whether she was annoying or not. Perhaps she was already holed up in one of the buildings, waiting out the mob’s prowl. Perhaps that was a plan, but Rainbow shook her head. There were better places to hide in than a high building. She had a different place in mind.

Arriving at a square with a fountain in the middle, Rainbow slinked over to the side of the area and peered over a ledge. To her glee, she spotted a sewer entrance just under a bridge to the north of her position.

Exactly what I’m looking for.

No one would think to look down there.

Tossing herself over a railing, Rainbow landed on the ground below in a roll. All that was left standing between her and the sewer entrance was a long road that led up to the junction that would bring her to the bridge. The road was desolate, save for a few dead bodies of hollows and one dog. All the buildings on the sides had their lanterns out in front of their doors, and every door was shut, likely civilians waiting out the mob’s hunt.

With nothing obstructing her way to the bridge, Rainbow ran down the cobbled path, hoping to get out of sight before another mob could show up. To her disbelief, there was the sound of something cracking above, followed by debris raining down to her left. It was pieces of a roof.

Looking up, she saw a large beast with long flowing black hair and a deer-shaped head with horns leap from the top of a building, landing before her on the street, blocking her path to the bridge. It had long arms extending past its bent knees, ending in curled claws that seemed to have at least three segments per finger. Its mouth was lined with dagger-like fangs, dripping blood and saliva, and its body was cloaked in bloody white tatters, likely what remained of the clothes it had on.

Bloood… Waaant bloood…” a low voice exited its mouth. “Anaya will get… what she waaantsss…

Rainbow wanted to turn and run the other way, to find a way around the beast, but when she tried to do so, she found a giant wall of fog blocking the entire back half of the street and no matter what she did, she could not pass it. It was the same on the other end, past the beast.

She was trapped.

“One way or another, I’m getting out of here and I’m going to find my light.” Rainbow unsheathed her shortswords and got into her stance, one blade held parallel to her body and the other pointed at the creature. “Come on, you beast!”

The creature known as Anaya lumbered forward, its elongated arms supporting its body up as it charged. Rainbow ran for its legs, seeing as its arms were so long, it would likely have difficulty reaching her if she stood under it.

She slid under the first arm, which swept over her head, one claw shredding off a few hairs off her head. The second one came from the other side, but Rainbow rolled past it, cutting back against the back of Anaya’s hand as it went by, drawing a spray of dark blood. Arriving at its feet, Rainbow wasted no time in spinning around with a few slashes to its toes and all the way up to its bent knees, feeling her blades lodge themselves into the beast’s bones as she kept up her work.

Keeping an eye out for Anaya’s arms, Rainbow spun around its right knee as one arm tried to grab for her, but her assessment had been right and its arms were just too long to reach her if she got it into the right angles. Spinning her swords into reverse grip, Rainbow jammed them into the lower back of the creature and began climbing up its back, repeatedly stabbing her blades in when she got to the meaty areas where its vital organs should be.

Anaya screeched into the night sky, its voice so loud that Rainbow felt as though the ground was shaking or her mind was spinning. Without warning, it jumped back very quickly and Rainbow only had a fraction of a second to dislodge herself from the beast’s back as it slammed into one of the buildings, raining concrete down around them. A man inside screamed, still seated on a couch, but Anaya reached in and grabbed him, before tossing him into its mouth, crunching down on bone and meat and spilling blood all over the street.

“Sorry, dude, but thanks.” Rainbow used this distraction to run along a raised piece of debris, using it to leap high into Anaya’s chest, thrusting both shortswords into its skin and using her weight to pull herself down.

With a shriek, the beast managed to get one hand over to Rainbow and clawed at her back, shredding through cloth, leather and flesh. Rainbow yelled in pain and fell off, her swords still in Anaya’s chest. One of the claws had went right through her left lung and she was having difficulty breathing and keeping up. Reaching into her pouch, Rainbow crushed a lifegem just as Anaya swept an arm at her, knocking her clean off her feet and into a fence at the side, denting it. Rainbow gasped as all the air in her damaged lungs was knocked right out of her chest, but it was nothing another lifegem couldn’t fix, though she needed time to recover.

Time wasn’t something she had as Anaya leapt for her, both arms raised high, its fists clenched and ready to smash down upon her.

Rainbow crushed a third lifegem, then rolled out of the attack, the impact launching her further forward, but at least she missed the full brunt of it. As she moved away from the monster, she began to feel her wounds close up and her bones mend themselves. She managed to recover enough just in time to slide under another slash of its arm, running to her swords in Anaya’s chest.

Anaya screeched and leapt high into the air. Rainbow kept her eyes up and her feet at the ready and when the beast came back down with its fists aimed for her again, Rainbow rolled away at the last second. Rubble flew up into the air around her as Anaya’s fists crashed into the cobbled ground just where she had been standing. Making a u-turn immediately as she got up from her roll, Rainbow Dash kicked off the creature’s clawed hands, then grabbed her swords which were still stuck in its chest. With a yell, the girl kicked off and yanked her swords out, then before she could fall, she dug them deep into Anaya’s chest again, this time higher than before.

Rainbow twisted her blades and cut out from the center, staining the beast’s tattered clothes with more blood. Anaya howled once more, then wobbled on its feet as Rainbow somersaulted away from its chest. It fell before the rainbow haired girl, only to begin fading away like a pile of cinders.

“Took you long enough…” Rainbow sighed with relief, then spun her shortswords before slamming them back in her sheaths. That had been one tough fight, but nothing she couldn’t handle. “I’m just that awesome.”

She crushed another lifegem to remove her aches and pains, then realized she only had nine left. She had to get more if a shop still existed in this land. These nine lifegems definitely weren’t going to last her whole journey.

With her path to the underside of the bridge now clear, Rainbow slinked over to the stairs leading down to the water, keeping an eye out for more hollows or creatures. There was another shriek across the city skyline, this one sounding more feral and feline than Anaya, but it sounded far, which was a very good thing.

Hiding in the shadows of the bridge, Rainbow stared into the gaping hole of the sewer entrance and took a sniff. It smelt terrible, but it was likely the mobs of hollows wouldn’t come down here. Steadying herself, Rainbow headed in for the dark unknown, not knowing where this would lead exactly, but at the moment, anywhere was better than above ground in this lost city.