A storm had raged in the depths of his very soul. Loch felt as if he suddenly had a rabid beast trapped within his stomach, and it was crying out to be released. Inside, the demonic totem resonated with the booming words in his mind, as if a thousand words were chanting towards it. The tattoos on the totem's body and the inscriptions on the armour began to pulse, following a certain rhythm. The purple fog billowing around the outside of his body entered through the skin above his arms in thin streams. They gathered into a torrent, drilling into the bones from his shoulder to his hands, causing a piercing agony to radiate throughout. His previously empty black silhouette began to be filled with a new colorful system, outlining his bones throughout his body.
Loch was a silent witness to the whole affair. He felt a tearing pain radiate through every inch of him, making his mind go fuzzy. Even though he was some odd apparition, currently separated from his body, he still felt everything happening to him. The pain was unbearable, especially once the purple stream entered his spine. The world went unsteady, making him lose his sense of time and his thoughts. He seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, aware that each time he did, he risked losing a piece of himself while a primal instinct tried to take control. A battle of spirit began to rise within. His true sense of self was warring against this new, more feral power rampaging within. His intuition confirmed the new power coursing through him; he should embrace, not fight it. Another part of him, a smaller but stubborn part, was scared, terrified even, at what this new power would mean. What would it do to him? He felt himself slipping. Loch felt utterly full, too full, like at any moment he would explode. In his current floating form, he didn't know what to do to alleviate the feeling, with his mind crumbling. He knew he was missing one more crucial step.
Panic set in, and a great weight of failure began to hang on his shoulders. 'Hopeless. I'm left hopeless again, not strong enough, not smart enough, not brave enough. Weak, weak, weak.' A soft, scared voice rang out through Loch's mind. Every time it spoke, it seemed to drain the little energy he had left. Just as he was falling ever deeper into the pit of self-doubt and pity, his old familiar blanket, Loch heard a cry that appeared to light his darkening world in a flash. Like a drowning man desperately trying to cling onto anything to keep himself afloat. Loch homed in on the noise and followed it. Another familiar soft but powerful bird's caw rang in his ears again as if entreating him to wake up. He paused for a moment, and the cracking world paused with him. "Riseeeeee!!" a voice screeched into his mind, and as if he was a car that needed a jump start, a surge of charged power travelled from the voice and throughout his being. Kicking everything back into gear and frying his feelings of self-doubt into ashes in its wake. Everything became clear for a split second.
At this point, every bone in his body, including his skull, radiated a dark purple and was vibrating. A much thicker cloud had also gathered around his bestial totem, forming a spinning vortex that was only growing in intensity. With his newly acquired moment of clarity, Loch followed an instinct that was buried deep within his blood. In his specter form, Loch spread his pair of invisible hands wide, as if they were a pair of wings and looked to the sky, letting out a roar that had the high pitch of a bird's squawk mixed within. A murky silhouette rose behind Loch at that moment, matching his movements and posture, mixing its own call to the sky. It was a proclamation to the air and to the earth. Still following the call within his blood, Loch took on a diving posture, with his arms tucked to his sides and face forward, aiming straight for the totem within a cyclone of purple clouds, like a kingfisher diving towards the water for prey.
As he was diving, it felt to Loch as if an invisible shackle that he had never noticed but had always been there was finally broken and his speed skyrocketed. He appeared to morph into a comet, followed by a tail engulfed in blue electric currents, while a colossal, winged creature soared above as a silent protector and onlooker. Loch split through the wildly spinning vortex, like a hot knife through butter, and rocketed straight into the still totem in an explosion of sparks.
The totem's dead green eyes took on an electric blue quality and brimmed with vibrant life. The gauntleted crossed arms spread to either side, with five black metal, reinforced appendages sparkling with arcs at their dagger-sharp points. While the curled ebony feathered wings unfurled, they looked to absorb all light, appearing at once soft but gleaming with an appendage cutting sharpness, and after just one majestic flap, the totem lifted off the ground and into the air. Now directly in the middle of the cyclone, and before it could lose altitude, the wings flapped once more, allowing it to hover in place. The motions were stiff and robotic at first but soon smoothed out, looking less like some archaic totem and now more like a living being. With arms outstretched the totem, copied Loch's previous posture and let out a cry into the sky above. Accompanied by the sounds of cracking glass, it was as if an invisible force field had shattered, and the cyclone, brimming with volatile energy, had found an outlet. A tempest of crackling, pulsing power poured from it and into the Totem's open mouth like a bath full of water going down an open drain.
The torrent of energy seemed to inject itself into the already glowing patterns and tattoos first before infusing the rest of the totem. The tattoos radiated power that spread throughout the inner space, in waves of heat, crackling with an unused power that only got stronger the more the totem absorbed the purple-colored cyclone. With the cyclone fully absorbed and weird calm before a storm settling within the space, the totem lowered both clawed hands, palms down. A large current of electricity gathered around both arms, traveling like mighty multi-colored legless eastern dragons, curling up and down and around. Once the dragons were almost as thick as the forearms, they were swimming around. They took on all different colors, some bright blue while others were vibrant red, the color of blood. A colossal midnight-black dragon, wreathed in electricity, materialized—visibly slick with an oily sheen. Under some silent command, they all began to entwine together into a collection, like a beautiful, shiny rainbow river of lightning.
With a whip crack, the rainbow river shot out of the totem's open palms and travels down ten feet, slamming into an invisible floor. Sending out a kaleidoscope of colorful currents running in a geometric pattern that resembled a bird in flight, wings outstretched and claws to either side. This multicolored pattern glowed and all around it grew a thick coating of soil, with a hint of budding grass in a circle. If it were in the outside world, it would be only about eight feet in diameter. It radiated electric power as if the purple cloud vortex had transformed into a condensed power and buried it under the soil for safekeeping. The totem began to lower itself from its position in the air, and within a few moments, its taloned feet landed in the middle of the soil, retaking the posture it held before Loch had inserted himself within it. Arms crossed and wings curled, except this time its eyes didn't return to their natural green but stayed an electrifying blue.
A powerful resonance in Loch's blood called out a name. The very word, once spoken, vibrated within and elevated his cloudy soul. Something within him wanted Loch to know what this heritage of power was and to hold that name with pride. Da-Peng. The name came across Loch's mind like an electric shock, filled with wind and lightning. Each letter was like a spark that lit up the blood within him.
The part of Loch that had injected himself into the totem had witnessed the whole thing. He wasn't in true control of the events and was more like a silent spectator running on autopilot. There was an almost instinctual feeling of how to channel this new power out of the soil and send it throughout his body. It could strengthen an appendage at will, but he had a feeling, like an itch he couldn't scratch, that there were more efficient ways to channel this power. He just couldn't decipher how as of yet. He also had an odd sick feeling after he swallowed the purple vortex, as if a part of it was rotten and didn't digest properly. Regardless, he now knew he had the power for the task his mother set for him, and with a flex of his will, he sent his floating consciousness back toward his body. Returning the purple-colored world of the hallway back to its half-destroyed blood speckled original version.
All sights and sounds returned to motion, the world coming back into play around Loch. Loch, himself, didn't focus on anything else and instead summoned a current of power from within the soil. Sending its vibrant color a slim shade dimmer in the process. Channeling the power, which shot through his body like a bolt of electricity, up through his chest, across his right shoulder, and down into his fist. Morphing his human hand into a grey-colored clawed hand brimming with sparks. Once he felt like he had stuffed his hand full and it couldn't take anymore or else something bad would happen, Loch punched straight at the wall in front of himself with a roar. Along with a bang, the building wall exploded outwards, as if a cannonball had slammed into it.
An opening at least two people high and the same across appeared in front of him. Showing a manicured lawn ringed in a low wall with a thick set of woods behind it, almost beckoning to him.
Scattered all over the area were signs of a fierce but ultimately short battle. Armored knights littered the area in the dozens, but they were clearly outnumbered, just going by the amount of monster corpses surrounding each knight. It looked as if each guard had to defend against over a dozen attacks from all manner of beasts by themselves. Even though the knights appeared done in by overwhelming physical harm, the beasts carried a wide range of wounds. The knights' weapons inflicted obvious slices and stabs, while some beasts appeared burned or frozen. One particularly large creature that looked as if it was similar to the Minotaur Loch had previously faced appeared to have half its body melted into a pile of goo. A knight with green etched patterns upon his armour had his entire arm embedded in the half-melted minotaur.
One specific spot right in the middle of the lawn was very eye-catching. A mountain of corpses almost six feet high stood solemnly among the scattered dead, as if a monument erected for the massacre. An odd ring of impaled beasts surrounded the macabre mountain. The creatures, that looked like a wolf that stood on two legs with long lithe arms, were impaled with what seemed to be spikes made of rock and dirt. A lone knight in shattered and broken armor lay atop the pile of corpses, a silver etched and gore-splattered heavy Warhammer gripped in one hand while his other hand was wrapped around a winged beast's neck. The monster's female looking face was a deep purple, while its neck looked as if it had been crushed and almost ripped, going by the tearing in the skin. The creature had a human female shaped torso but no arms, instead its shoulders extended into a pair of dirt-colored feathered wings. A pair of human-shaped legs ending in oversized reptilian-like clawed feet completed the picture of a truly grotesque monster.
The sight of the burly looking deceased knight gave Loch a tightness in his chest, especially the large silver warhammer. It conjured memories of a vociferous man, with a thick moustache and wide frame. Striding up and down a line of soldiers in training gear, bellowing out orders and scolding what he perceived to be slackers. One specific scene of him slamming his warhammer into the ground, causing a large pillar of spiked dirt to rise a few feet away, sent a feeling of wonder and awe through Loch's mind.
Unknown to Loch, the fighting behind him had come to an abrupt stop and silence reigned supreme. Shaking off the odd feelings at the sight of the devastation of life scattered across the lawn. Flushed by his new power and excitement, when Loch turned around, he couldn't help the large grin the grew on his face, just like any child wanting to show off to his mother, he yelled, "I did it! Let's go!!" His bellow rang on deaf ears however, his mother was frozen, standing in the middle of a pile of assorted creatures and monster corpses. In front of her was a figure that just the sight of made his newly brimming power extinguish and bury it deep under the soil within himself. As if even it, wanted to hide from the being standing across from his mother. In an almost choked sob, Loch said, "No. Not you. Not again."