85 - Demon
Arielle appeared on the other side of the portal in mid-air, riding on the back of her white portal bird. It was nighttime here, the moon reflected on a shiny lake in the distance, with ribbons of dark ink bleeding into it. The lake itself was segmented into different colors, the dark plume forming a sickening art form on the water. The center of the lake bubbled, but Ari tore her eyes away when the bird dove toward what seemed to be a transparent barrier made of magic.
"This is Elric's," Vittoria said. "But it's weaker than it should be, which means he's wounded and using the last of his strength to keep it up."
The bird flapped its wing and opened its mouth, sending a light beam through the barrier, which shattered it.
Arielle gasped. "Won't that hurt him?"
"It'll hurt him even more to let him keep it up."
Arielle's next statement died in her throat when she saw him on the ground.
Elric.
He was on his hands and knees, pale and bloodied, his robe torn and disheveled, and a bloody gash in his side.
Standing in front of him was a man in a hood, looming, a threatening darkness surrounding him.
Ari didn’t hesitate. Neither did Vittoria.
In parallel, a heated light ray beamed at him, and Ari sprayed a variety of void bullets.
He blocked both with his shield, but Ari wasn't done.
Furious, she took a page out of the Phasewalkers' book and used the force of the deflection to transform the orbs.
She'd seen them do it, with the Calor in their body, which could attract any charged Calor in the atmosphere and switch the different isotopes at will.
But Arielle did it manually, ricocheting her attack.
This time, when bullets touched the hooded figure's shield, it became a black, ravenous flame.
It roared around him, swallowing up the ground beneath him. He barely got out in time, disappearing and appearing several feet away.
Arielle could taste the shock in the atmosphere.
Both his and Vittoria's.
"Did you just...." Vittoria said, but trailed off as the man raised his hand to the sky, targeting them with bolts of lightning.
Arielle used [Reflect] to send it back at him, but the lightning disappeared before it hit.
The hooded man's head twisted around, creaking inhumanely.
“A Phasewalker?” he wondered aloud, right before Vittoria's bird spat out another light beam. He blocked it, but it zigzagged around his shield and hit him straight in the chest, sending him flying.
Suddenly, he disappeared.
Not like with a portal. He just vanished from view.
“Bastard,” Vittoria muttered as she flew low enough to have Ari jump off her back. "I’ll find him. You check on Elric.”
Ari nodded and rushed to where Elric was kneeling on the floor, as Vittoria used her magical light beam to scan the surroundings.
Elric was coughing weakly. His eyes were closed, his body swaying slightly like he was about to collapse. Or maybe like he was in a trance.
She laid a hand on his head. He was burning hot. There was also something else appearing just below the cuff of his sleeve.
Dark veins pulsing underneath his skin.
A trail of saliva dropped down his mouth, pooling on the ground.
What did they do to him?
“Elric,” she whispered.
He opened his eyes, and in the moonlight Arielle noted that his pupils had expanded to take over the whites. Sweat dripped down from his forehead as he gnashed his teeth, squinting at her.
“Arielle?” he whispered.
She nodded. “What’s wrong with you?”
He didn't answer her at first, the words choking in his throat. “You shouldn’t…you shouldn’t be here.”
In the background, she heard Vittoria’s bird screeching in anger, right before Ari and Elric were shoved by a heavy force, and lightning struck the ground near them.
It took Arielle a second to orient herself, realizing that Vittoria had gotten them out of the way in time.
But she couldn’t even dwell on that.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them rumbled. A loud growl arose from underneath it, and it sounded like a troll, but deeper. Grittier.
Without warning, the ground became liquid.
“Arielle!”
“I know,” she said, and she immediately levitated both her and Elric into the air, the earth chasing them.
But then the air got thick, too, restricting her movement, and then hail began to fall.
“It's an Overlord,” Vittoria said. "They can cast large-scale magic, and once they establish a warzone, they can change it at will. What we need to do is–"
A deafening shout wrecked the atmosphere, right as a hand burst out of the ground. It was large and dark and bloody, and the thing it was attached to, the body that crawled out of the soil, was an ugly beast made up of tendons and muscles.
Its eye sockets were empty as it focused on Arielle, and she knew what it was. She had seen a picture of it in one of her stories.
“A behemoth,” she murmured.
“Merciful Sentinel,” Vittoria whispered. “They really set him up, didn’t they? We should have found him earlier.”
Another rumble came from behind them in the lake.
Vittoria said, “Arielle. Go back to campus. I’ll take care of this.”
“No.”
“This isn’t a joke,” Vittoria said. "Hell's balls, I can't even teleport you from here. I'll have to distract him."
Her bird rushed toward Arielle, likely trying to capture her and fly her out of the zone of danger, but Arielle avoided it and swooped toward the behemoth.
"Arielle!"
She tuned Vittoria out when she recognized something stuck between the monster's teeth.
A piece of Elric's robe, along with a red bloodstain.
It hit her with a dazzling clarity that made her heart stop.
The things had tried to eat Elric.
Arielle heard Vittoria shout her name as another roar hit the air, but she ignored it. She stared the Level 2000 behemoth in the face.
“You hurt Elric, didn’t you?”
It flashed even more of its teeth, in a dirty, bloody smile, as it lifted its hand to grab her.
Arielle saw red.
Quick, blinding bursts of lightning illuminated the sky, and she reflected it at the beast right through its skull.
Its head snapped back with a growl of pain, but it didn't fall.
Good. She wasn't done.
She turned the lightning into lava, flooding it right into the behemoth's mouth and nostrils. It grabbed its throat as it gurgled fire.
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She didn’t stop there.
The original caster attempted to break the spell, but Ari held one part steady, one trail of liquid fire, made it into a solid blade, sharpened the edges with void, and with an angry cry, she hacked the creature's hand off.
It roared, of course, and again when she hacked the arm that shot out for her.
The air shimmered with violence as she did it again and again, until it cut right through. Then she began on the rest of its body. Black blood splattered on her clothes, her face filling her vision. The acidic demon fired up her rage, drowning her in a sea of red, hot wrath.
It still wasn't enough.
The atmosphere changed again, triggering a tornado that attempted to carry her away, but she transformed that spell, too. She could see exactly where it was coming from and who was holding onto it. All she had to do was redirect and pull apart pieces of it, slotting in other pieces, using the techniques she'd learned from her fight with the Phasewalkers.
It wasn't full-on phase-walking. She wasn't as good as they were; her handling was clumsy, her replacement slow and limited.
But anger was a great motivator.
It made it such that even without completely conscious thought, the orbs obeyed her, and she used the storm to create a sword of black fire that sliced the creature's head clean off.
The demon in front of her became nothing but pieces of meat falling on the ground, below her.
It had probably screamed through it all. Arielle saw its mouth opening and closing, but she couldn’t hear anything beyond the ringing in her ears and the rage roaring through her body. She still trembled from it. She was still angry that it had tried to eat Elric, that it had hurt him that badly.
That Elric had been set up and betrayed all because he was a good person doing his job.
All because beasts like this couldn't just stay in their own realm and stop bothering humans.
Even when it was on the ground, Arielle kept driving her sword into its skull again and again, using everything the environment gave her to feed into her weapon, making it bigger, stronger, faster.
Kill it. Kill it. Kill it.
“Arielle.”
The voice from behind her was Vittoria’s, and the bird perched on her shoulder.
It instantly brought the world back.
That was the thing that made her realize what she had done, as she gasped for air, realizing that angry tears flowed down her cheeks.
She felt no remorse. None at all.
She wished she could do the same to all the ones who had betrayed Elric.
She turned back, breathing hard from her exercise, and found Eric still floating in the air, with his eyes closed and a band of light around his neck, wrists, and legs. He was no longer conscious, no longer breathing harshly, but the drool dripped off his chin. There was also another dead behemoth below him on the ground, an arrow of light through its chest.
“We need to get Elric out of here,” Vittoria said. “I've been able to stop the spread temporarily, but we'll need–"
"A healer."
Vittoria’s bird scanned Elric, and she told Ari, “I’m pretty sure we need more than just a healer.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been poisoned with demon blood,” she said. “Not just any demon blood. Regular demon blood is a slow-acting poison to humans, but when refined from a high-ranking noble, it can transform one into a demonkin."
Arielle inhaled sharply, more horrified and terrified than she could remember being in her life. “Elric’s becoming a demon.”
"Not if we can help it. There is a cure, but it's expensive to produce and requires voluntary human sacrifice from a pure-hearted Saint. There are only three in the world. Two are held by the High Ascendant and the other by the Demonic Sect." She breathed. "The problem is that the cures are reserved for the Ascendant himself and the Demonic Sect..." She shook her head. "They won't give it to us without a fight. A possession this bad is as good as a death sentence."
"Elric won't die,"Arielle said. "I won't let him."
"We need to get him out of here right now, first of all, as the demonic environment is only worsening his condition. However, we can't leave because the damn Overlord keeps changing the exit and shielding his presence so we can't find him."
Arielle immediately scanned the atmosphere, watching the scattered orbs around them. She followed the tail of the spell she had stolen, and now she looked for the pieces that had been left behind.
She found it, where the Vacu was thickest in the atmosphere, right as it had been around the hooded figure's body.
“He’s there,” she said, pointing.
The bird glanced at her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. But he might switch positions again, so move quickly."
Vittoria didn’t spend time asking Arielle how she knew what she knew.
The bird split into two and then four and then eight. As they dispersed, one of them charged for the Overlord.
Arielle watched the Overlord's movement, knowing he was startled by the way the orbs vibrated. Suddenly, he vanished and appeared on the opposite side, and Arielle pointed to follow him.
"There," she shouted.
Another of Vittoria's birds whizzed forward, and the Overlord turned the environment pitch black, but Arielle could still see the orbs, and Vittoria's light beams easily cut through the atmosphere.
Her birds continued to multiply, spreading the surveillance, and when Arielle pointed again, the closest one shot forward, catching the Overlord before he could escape.
Then she surrounded him with a golden beam, and the rest of the birds swarmed, pecking at it and ripping at its skin as it screamed, finally visible.
It was the hooded man from before. A lasso of light wrapped around its neck and banded down its body, preventing escape.
The body hit the ground a split second before Vittoria's birds did.
Arielle watched as they tore its hood off and continued to rip at its face, viciously.
It was...
She didn't know. She didn't know what it was.
It looked human, but its skin was sallow, sunken in. Black veins streaked all across its face like skinny branches, even into its vacant eyes.
"It's demonkin," Vittoria whispered.
"I thought it was an Overlord," Ari asked.
"Apparently it's both."
Without warning, Vittoria's bird used her beak to rip out his throat.
Ari started a bit. The bird glanced at Arielle, mouth full of blood, and said, “Sorry.”
Ari blinked, wondering what she was apologizing for. She was covered in blood too.
"We have to keep killing him to make sure he stays dead for longer."
"Okay. Why are you apologizing to me for that?"
"Because..." The bird turned its gaze back to the behemoth Ari killed, then it shook its head. "Never mind. This is a whole mess, but we've stopped the immediate danger. Someone else will clean it up for now, and they're probably on their way. Let's go."
Ari nodded as the birds once more combined to form a portal that grabbed all of them, including the Overlord, swallowing them.
They appeared inside Vittoria's home.
“Okay,” Vittoria said as she moved around the couch quickly, retrieving a golden metallic stake from her box.
She returned, picked up the demon, and placed him against the wall, then stabbed him through the chest, ensuring he was properly secured.
"We'll let him wake up once we're ready to interrogate him," Vittoria said, dusting her hands.
She picked up Elric, princess style, and laid him on a couch. Arielle followed, and they stared down at him.
He hadn't woken, and there was a slow rumbling in his chest.
Vittoria sighed and put her hand to her face. "This is my fault. I should have seen this coming."
"I thought you did."
"No. I thought Yseult was simply going to have them capture him and threaten to turn him into a demon if he didn't cooperate. Or have a demon possess and control him temporarily and use him to do something devastating. Like maybe killing all those Phasewalkers. I planned on catching Yseult in the act and saving Elric before any real damage was done. A simple short-term possession would have been easy enough to fix, but this...How did they even get their hands on refined demon blood? It's expensive to produce, and demons typically don't give it out to just anyone, as it binds you to a demonic royal family forever."
"Elric cannot become a demon," Arielle said, starting to feel frantic. "We have to stop it."
Vittoria stared into space, lacing her fingers together and putting them against her mouth. "I think I know what their plan is now. This is bigger than Yseult."
"What?"
"Yseult is not in charge here. That is why he did not have most of his facts right. He has likely been focusing on finding out who Elric told about the issue and also covering his tracks, making sure that whatever gets discovered doesn't lead back to him. He knows the council will look into this incident, so he's covering his ass...or securing whatever leverage he has with the High Ascendant. But he left Elric to the person in charge."
"Who?"
"A literal demon who I'm guessing is currently running the demonic sect."
Arielle was so shocked her mouth fell open.
"It has to be a high-ranking demon, too," Vittoria continued. "One that has managed to infiltrate the sect and assume the position it has. Yseult knows about this, but allowed it to go on, merely attempting to restrict the activities of said demon. I'm assuming that the sect was promised some kind of power in return, so the Elders are in support of it." Anger twisted her features. "So they're allowing the demons to use civilians as training tools and experiments. That's probably what the raids were about. They were not going after people who were consorting with demons. They were covering evidence and wiping out anyone who would know anything about it. Yseult either found out then or later, and they convinced him to keep it a secret."
"Why?"
"Why else? To have more leverage with the High Ascendant. Because if their plan succeeds, it benefits him too. Imagine how much more influential he would become if they got powerful enough to summon and control a demon army that would be used to fight other demons. Perhaps that's what the demon lord promised, and he has managed to fool or convince the rest of the elders." She thought about it. "Demons are good at mind and memory manipulation. Though high-ranking sect elders are likely immune, Yseult might be using that to destroy the memories of those whom Elric told."
"Do you think he's controlling the Ascendant in that way?"
"No. The Ascendant is too powerful for that. But he could manipulate others."
Arielle's jaw clenched tighter the more Vittoria talked. She suddenly got to her feet and said, "You said there's an antidote."
"One that is held by the Ascendant and another by the Sect." She sighed. "I will ask Elric's father to appeal to the council on his behalf, but I'm not sure how far that will get me." She glanced down at the sleeping archmage. "Elric would hate that, but it's necessary."
"What about your mother?" Arielle asked. "Elric mentioned once that she is also a legendary mage. Together, they might convince the Ascendant."
Her face tightened. "To ask my mother means I will have to offer her something of value in return."
"So?"
"So I already know what she will ask for. I cannot give her that."
Arielle's patience died. “Elric will die or become a demon if you do nothing!”
"I never said I was going to do nothing," Vittoria snapped right back at her.
"But you're acting like it," Ari challenged.
Vittoria glared at her, then tore her hand through her hair.
"Damn it. Okay. How about this? There is another option."
"Which is?"
"We find out where the sect is hiding the cure, steal it, and take down the demon lord without the council's interference," she said, and her golden eyes gleamed with a tinge of madness. "Doesn't that sound like a much better idea?"