“Eli! I've had enough of your games! Come out this instant!” -Voltrain somewhere.

  Season 3: Catpurr 15: Catpassion

  “So. What happens now?” Adam asked as he sat in a wooden chair across from the illusion of his teacher. “Did I pass the trial?”

  “Did you learn anything?”

  “Yes.”

  Rezalia merely smiled, “Don't lie to me Adam, you should know better than that.”

  Adam sighed, “I think the trials aren't for us, but for the gods-”

  “Not something externally. Something personal. Have you learned anything? Do you feel as though you've grown?”

  “What's there to learn about myself? I know myself.”

  The woman sighed, “Of course.”

  “What?”

  “I can't say I'm not surprised you turned out this way. You want to help, yet you simply don't understand why people view you the way they do.”

  Adam frowned. “I’m not a monster.”

  “I didn't say you were,” Rezalia smiled softly, “But you have to admit you tend to leave a scene of carnage wherever you go.”

  “That's not my fault, if you're a copy of my memories then you can clearly see I'm surrounded by morons nearly every waking hour.”

  “Who are also your subordinates,” Rezalia said, pointing a finger at Adam, “Your responsibility. If you can't control a few people, how will you control a nation comprised of thousands, millions?”

  “I don't have any intention of controlling a nation,” Adam scowled.

  “And yet, you want to spread your will over to others.”

  “Enlighten! I only wish to teach the people the possibility of what lies beyond. To cast away the stigma of necromancy. To make a better world.”

  “A lofty goal.”

  “One that I do out of my own free will.”

  “And how has that been going for you? Ten years of isolation. On the run from monsters, man, and God, and at the end of it all, you have nothing to show for all your efforts. No prodigee, no lover, no friend.”

  “I have Schroedinger.”

  “And where is he, Adam?”

  “I…”

  “Could it be that your way of doing things is perhaps the wrong way?”

  “No,” Adam said flatly, irritation grating his nerves.

  “And you don't see why that may not be a problem?”

  “You're an illusion created from my memories. Designed by the gods to toy with me, what do you know?”

  “I know that you're lonely. Tired. That you feel burdened by a weight of responsibility you don't want. That there are two halves of you at war with yourself at all times. Shall I simulate a full moon?”

  A dangerous glint appeared in Adam's eye. “Hush, illusion.”

  “Who said I'm an illusion?”

  Adam grit his teeth.

  “I will say this, you are correct, I'm not the real Rezalia, if that assuages your concerns,” The mimic replied, smiling to herself. “But I’m not just an illusion.”

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  “Then what are you?”

  “Something left behind. Something for you,” The woman said, holding her palm out before her body began to shimmer and pool into her hand to create a bronze prism emitting blue light. “I am a memory engram of Rezalia Des'hart, left behind for your eventual arrival.”

  My arrival?

  Adam furrowed his brow, hesitant to reach out.

  Memory engrams were rare artisan items that held the memories of its user. Crafted of rare alloys, the memory couldn't be accessed by anyone other than the creator and those they deemed were allowed to view the secrets within. A rare item, borderlining as legendary with the only person Adam knew capable of making one being the same image that spoke to him.

  Suddenly Adam was seven again, a young boy on the prowl in the deep of night when he should be asleep. Yet sleep was a luxury he could ill afford. Hungry, cold, and owing a debt to the orphanage, the cold nights like this were the best to find his marks.

  Then, from his perch on the rooftops, he saw it, a woman, one bundled in expensive black fabrics that stuck out from the winter white fiddling with an object that caught his eye in only the way something expensive would.

  An easy mark, at least, he thought so before he soon found himself caught by a dozen skeletal hands.

  Adam exhaled, his mind returning back to the present and back to the familiar item he had once tried to steal.

  A trick?

  Adam didn't know, only that this trial was grating his nerves and he was eager to see it done.

  “Because it's you, do you want to know a hint for this trial?” A voice resounded, bouncing off the walls in a low echo.

  “What?” Adam grunted, taking hold of the prism that was large in his adolescent body.

  “Compassion.”

  Adam raised a brow as his surroundings melted away to leave him alone in the desolate tower.

  He looked down, eyeing the contraption, the metal object unresponsive to his touch.

  Do I rub it?

  No effect.

  Adam's eyes crinkled, furrowing as he pressed upon it to no avail before looking for a switch or button on the prism’s smooth surface.

  The Hel?

  Pausing, Adam stared at the contraption for a few moments before hugging it.

  Compassion huh?

  Still, no response.

  “How do I even open this?!” Adam yelled in frustration.

  Then a massive boom, the stone walls shaking as the world seemed to vibrate in response to the sound of clashing occurring outside.

  “Junith,” Adam hissed, rising from his chair of bones and stepping outside where Junith was locked in a battle against a figure of golden light.

  “Traitor!” The figure in white proclaimed only to be met with “You betrayed me!” from Junith before an influx of power surged through the air.

  Void light versus radiant sunlight, the powers of both clashing against one another in a violent spectacle that tore the once lush jungle outside apart.

  “Great…” Adam seethed, his annoyance at an all time high as he raised his hand to shield his eyes from the intensity of the power converging into a growing sphere of chaotic energy. “Where was all this last trial?!”

  A boom, the detonation sending Adam reeling and tumbling backwards into the tower with his prism clutched tightly.

  “Of course now when I don't need a show of force she starts manifesting abilities,” Adam grit his teeth, groaning as he rubbed his head and climbed out of the tower to spy the clearing dust.

  “You have abandoned the way of the light,” The paladin in gold said, her flowing blonde hair shimmering in the sun. “For this crime, the taint of your existence must be removed.”

  “I didn't betray the light! Voltrain betrayed me! Lied to everyone and abandoned me when I needed him the most!” Junith shouted, her body glaring with purple energy. “But I know the truth.”

  “You know a lie. The Lord of light is purity. Compassion. Shelter and safety. To deny him, is to deny the natural order of the world.”

  Adam furrowed his brow, cocking his head to the side at the woman in white who was oddly familiar.

  “Then I deny this order!” Junith shouted, “He who would turn his back on the faithful flock deserves neither worship nor praise! I gave everything to his name and yet I was spurned! Left to be at the mercy of a hated foe! I spent days! Months! Wakeless nights begging for salvation or a sign only to be met with a kill order on my head! The Lord of Light won't stand with me, so now I must stand by myself.”

  Adam yawned, watching the spectacle from the sidelines.

  “Fine. If this is the path you have chosen, show me the will of your resolve,” The paladin said, holding her ivory tipped spear of gold aloft.

  “Lady Des'hart!” Junith shouted, readying her broken weapon with tears in her eyes, “I will not lose!”

  Lady… Des’hart? Adam blinked repeatedly, confusion on his face as the paladin shot forward with inhuman speed towards Junith, the two preparing to clash in an explosive contest that would pulverize the area.

  “Yeah how about no,” Adam said before summoning his revolver from his storage ring and shooting the paladin in the head with expert aim.

  A resounding clang, the armored woman skidding across the floor and tumbling the ground only to land facedown at Junith's feet in a crumpled mess.

  “Huh?” Junith let out, her eyes wide with disbelief as she looked down at the dead woman at her feet and then to Adam. “Huh?”

  “It does work! Hahaha! I should give an army of skeletons these things!” Adam proclaimed, holding his weapon aloft before turning over to the paladin staring blankly. “Well, now that that's over, we should see about getting out of here.”

  “Y-y-you…you…”

  “What? It's just an illusion, no sense conversing with it,” Adam shrugged before Junith fell to her knees, screamed and began to sob. “Oh… great.”