Don’t You Dare

The small body of Luminescent Helper buzzed around Laurence's head, spinning around in circles, it fluttered in front of his face before returning to Lauri's head.

Scratching his chin, Laurence nodded. "That Imprint is a good one to have, although I suppose with those light weapons you can make it probably won't seem as useful. But that's not me saying it's useless. Who knows what kind of situations you'll find yourself in where a floating light source could come in handy. Either on exploration or as bait." Holding out his hand, strings of light burst from Laurence's skin, forming into the shape of a bright red apple that dropped into the man's open hand. 

He smiled, offering it to Lauri. "Although I will say, it is exciting to hear you received an armour Imprint of the Awakened rank. Have a few bites and then try it on."

Looking at the apple, Lauri graciously took it from his hand. About to take a bite, Lauri stopped, looking at the apple. "Wait, if you've had this." Squeezing the apple, Lauri's eye twitched. "Why haven't you used this before?! Having us eat cooked Fiend whilst we were out of the village for a whole year!"

"It was all to prepare you to eat Fiend meat," Laurence smirked, sticking his tongue out. "Whilst away from home, you won't always have a fresh meal ready for you. So you make do with what you have. Unless you get lucky and find an Imprint to solve your problems."

Thinking about what Laurence said, Lauri rolled his eyes. 

'Well, I guess I can't argue with that.'

Taking a bite from the crunchy apple, Lauri chewed, swallowing he was about to take another bite but paused. The edges of the apple were starting to grow together, after a few moments, the apple looked as it had before, as if Lauri had never taken a bite out of it.

"You have an infinitely regenerating apple?"

Laurence nodded. "Yep."

"And you had me eating Fiend meat to prepare me for when I'm on my own."

"Mhm, sounds about right."

'Stop sounding so happy about it!'

Grumbling, Lauri took another bite, chewed and then another and another.

Lauri devoured the apple as fast as it repaired itself. Not that it was too surprising, his last meal was raw bug meat and before that Lauri had had a modest breakfast of cooked Fiend meat and berries.

Finishing with the apple, he tossed it back to Laurence. "Alright, I'm full." Standing up, he took a few steps back, glanced at the crack in the ground behind him and then moved behind Laurence – putting as much distance between himself and the crack as he could.

Laurence turned to follow Lauri's movements, the apple in his hand unspooled into a dozen strings of light that returned to Laurence's body. Laurence tilted his head, his smile still plastered across his face. "Is it finally time to see this armour of yours, what was it called again? Her Aegis?"

Nodding, Lauri took a deep breath.

The strings of light appeared from his chest, unlike when summoning Luminescent Helper. The strings bent backwards, beginning to wrap around Lauri's body. It took the strings only three seconds to summon Luminescent Helper, but as Lauri tried to summon Her Aegis, the strings took longer than three seconds to summon the armour. As he waited, Lauri furrowed his brow as a few thoughts came to mind.

'So it takes longer to summon armour, is it because I got Luminescent Helper from the Lucent Drone Swarm that was ranked as a Husk-Born Fiend and I received Her Aegis from… Caretaker who was ranked as an Awakened.' After twelve seconds, the armour had been fully summoned, the strings glowed brightly one last time before disappearing as Her Aegis appeared in its place. Flexing his fingers, Lauri chewed on the thought a little longer. 'Then that means if I get into a fight, I'll have to be careful and summon my Imprints before I get into danger-'

"Ooo!"

Lauri's attention was pulled out of his thoughts as Laurence hopped up off the ground. Walking around Lauri in a circle, Laurence inspected the glowing suit of chitin. 

"Not a bad find, Lauri, not a bad find at all." Grabbing Lauri's wrists, Laurence pulled the boy's arms up, testing how Her Aegis restricted his movement.

Laurence let go of the boy's arms a few seconds later, satisfied that the armour didn't too heavily restrict his movement. Although Her Aegis was heavily armoured by the glowing chitin, the white leather that connected it all together allowed for more than enough movement.

Putting his hands on his hips, Lauri twisted his waist from side to side, checking how much he could move. "It's nice and all, my only concern is that I might get hit in the gaps. That's what you do when fighting something, right? You aim for the gaps in their armour." Hopping from one foot to the other, Lauri felt the slight weight from Her Aegis weighing him down. "Hmm, I guess the weight is manageable as long as I don't have to jump across any large gaps anytime soon."

Stopping in front of Lauri, Laurence continued smiling. "Well, don't you worry, should we come across any large gaps. I guess I'll just have to throw you across."

Frowning, Lauri leaned back. "Don't you dare."

"I'd never." Chuckling to himself, Laurence took a few steps back, stopping just as his heel reached the edge of the crack. "Stay here for a second, I forgot to get something."

Saying no more, Lauri watched in confusion as Laurence fell backwards over. 

Crawling towards the crack, Lauri stared down in horror as Laurence fell straight down. Moments before hitting the ground, his body was covered in light, and he landed on the floor, not even disturbing the dust that had settled on the ground.

Lauri's stomach began to become unsettled as he kept staring down at the floor below. Covering his mouth, he rolled away from the terrifying crack.

Reaching a good distance from the crack, Lauri got onto his knees, moved his hand away from his mouth and proceeded to throw up the partially digested apple he had consumed a minute ago.

Coughing, Lauri spat on the floor with a scowl.

'I hate heights.'

Moving a small distance away from where he had just relieved himself of his lunch. Lauri sat cross-legged, admiring his new armour a little more. 

The glowing chitin of Her Aegis was rather pretty to look at. The glow had a subtle pulse to it. It slightly dimmed before glowing again, it almost seemed to follow Lauri's heartbeat. The only proof that the glow wasn't following Lauri's heartbeat was that he could still feel his heart beating in his chest.

Putting a hand on his chest, Lauri took a few moments to breathe.

'Calm down, calm down. I need something to distract me.'

Summoning the strings, Lauri followed the lines of text until he reached his Imprints.

Innate Talent: [Brightest Night] [Her Aegis]

Focusing on [Her Aegis], Lauri rested his hand on his palm as he waited for the next lines to appear.

[Her Aegis: I trust that you will look after this place in my stead, it is quite precious to me. Except this statue clogging up the place, it is a pity you can't fit one thousand wings on something so small. I suppose I'll have to make the next one bigger, a lot bigger.]

Blinking, Lauri rolled his eyes.

'Why do I even bother reading these things.'

Dismissing the strings, Lauri was about to stand up when the air around him began to sparkle. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Lauri jumped up, spinning around.

Laurence was standing a step away from Lauri, a large smile spreading across his lips. 

"Boo, I brought you a present."

Holding out his hands, Laurence held two soul cores in his left and one in his right.