When a conscious awareness of her surroundings returned to Chao, she initially believed herself to be dead. Opening her eyes, she found herself lying flat on her back on an endless white plain, with no discernible difference between any existing walls, ceiling, or floor. All that stood out was a single lamp post, the very same one that had been the centerpiece of her battle with the Garleans, projecting a lonely pillar of light that just barely reached her with the edge of its circle.
Sitting up slowly, she checked herself over to find her injuries were gone, but that her armor was still in the sad state it had been in when she had fallen unconscious. It was this combination of factors, along with the surreal environment that she found herself in, that led her to believe that she was dreaming.
"So clever, as always, would-be Reclaimer. You have all the answers, and yet you still know nothing."
Scrambling to her feet, Chao spun to face the unknown voice, finding herself faced with a nebulous figure seemingly made of pure shadow. Its form shifted constantly into a number of silhouettes she found familiar, all matching individuals she knew, as though her very own subconscious could not decide who it wanted to confront her with. The figure's eyes, however, never changed; they were the very same sharp, mismatched eyes she saw whenever she looked in a mirror.
"What is this place?" the fire mage demanded.
"This? This is Phantasmagoria." It was then that she realized that the voice was not unknown; like the silhouettes its form wavered through, it was as though the voices of everyone whom she had ever known were speaking at once to her, blending together into the words of this shadowy being. "It is where your mind attempts to solve the challenge you have created for yourself by corroding your own soul with Magia Erebia."
The shadowy creature reached across itself, drawing an equally-undefined shape that extended and twisted itself into the form of a sword. Chao recognized its shape as that of an Ironworks-made magitek sword, and knew of only one person in her network of contacts that wielded such a blade. The appearance of a feathered beret, however briefly, on the creature's head confirmed her assumption.
"And it is here you must find the answers to Magia Erebia. For if you do not..."
The creature charged her. It wasn't an instantaneous movement, the way she had half-expected, but still unsettlingly fast. It swung its blade as it reached her and she lifted her left arm in defense, but her forearm armor offered little resistance; the blade bored through the advanced metal and severed her arm halfway to the elbow.
Hot crimson blood splashed to the ground, marring the pristine white field as her lost limb fell into the center of the pool with a wet smack, splashing her own blood onto her boots. She stared in shock, whether more from the fact that her armor did so little or from the screaming pain in her nerve endings, she honestly wasn't sure.
The shadowy being left her no time to contemplate the matter, drawing its sword back and driving it to the hilt into Chao's chest, just below her crumpled torso armor. Blood fountained from her mouth, unhindered by the missing hand that she instinctively tried to lift to stem its flow.
"...Then death will be the most merciful of outcomes."
In the outside world, resting on a bed in the Vylbrand Academy's infirmary, her entire body convulsed in response to the lethal stroke, blood bursting forth from her mouth. Satomi, tending to both Chao and a separate victim of the Garleans' tender attentions while still nursing her own injuries, limped over and turned the miqo'te on her side to prevent her from drowning in her own blood. Rurujua, the local chief medic, quickly began applying restorative magic to shore up her vitality.
It was the first death of Chao Lingshen.
Sitting up slowly, she checked herself over to find her injuries were gone, but that her armor was still in the sad state it had been in when she had fallen unconscious. It was this combination of factors, along with the surreal environment that she found herself in, that led her to believe that she was dreaming.
"So clever, as always, would-be Reclaimer. You have all the answers, and yet you still know nothing."
Scrambling to her feet, Chao spun to face the unknown voice, finding herself faced with a nebulous figure seemingly made of pure shadow. Its form shifted constantly into a number of silhouettes she found familiar, all matching individuals she knew, as though her very own subconscious could not decide who it wanted to confront her with. The figure's eyes, however, never changed; they were the very same sharp, mismatched eyes she saw whenever she looked in a mirror.
"What is this place?" the fire mage demanded.
"This? This is Phantasmagoria." It was then that she realized that the voice was not unknown; like the silhouettes its form wavered through, it was as though the voices of everyone whom she had ever known were speaking at once to her, blending together into the words of this shadowy being. "It is where your mind attempts to solve the challenge you have created for yourself by corroding your own soul with Magia Erebia."
The shadowy creature reached across itself, drawing an equally-undefined shape that extended and twisted itself into the form of a sword. Chao recognized its shape as that of an Ironworks-made magitek sword, and knew of only one person in her network of contacts that wielded such a blade. The appearance of a feathered beret, however briefly, on the creature's head confirmed her assumption.
"And it is here you must find the answers to Magia Erebia. For if you do not..."
The creature charged her. It wasn't an instantaneous movement, the way she had half-expected, but still unsettlingly fast. It swung its blade as it reached her and she lifted her left arm in defense, but her forearm armor offered little resistance; the blade bored through the advanced metal and severed her arm halfway to the elbow.
Hot crimson blood splashed to the ground, marring the pristine white field as her lost limb fell into the center of the pool with a wet smack, splashing her own blood onto her boots. She stared in shock, whether more from the fact that her armor did so little or from the screaming pain in her nerve endings, she honestly wasn't sure.
The shadowy being left her no time to contemplate the matter, drawing its sword back and driving it to the hilt into Chao's chest, just below her crumpled torso armor. Blood fountained from her mouth, unhindered by the missing hand that she instinctively tried to lift to stem its flow.
"...Then death will be the most merciful of outcomes."
In the outside world, resting on a bed in the Vylbrand Academy's infirmary, her entire body convulsed in response to the lethal stroke, blood bursting forth from her mouth. Satomi, tending to both Chao and a separate victim of the Garleans' tender attentions while still nursing her own injuries, limped over and turned the miqo'te on her side to prevent her from drowning in her own blood. Rurujua, the local chief medic, quickly began applying restorative magic to shore up her vitality.
It was the first death of Chao Lingshen.
![[Image: 0uxkKgX.png]](http://i.imgur.com/0uxkKgX.png)
Chris Ganale | R'tahz Tia | Yuuna Akashi | Chao Lingshen | Seno Nakakami | L'dran Cresnoble | Garon Crayson
