by Virlyce
“You captured a devil,” Mary said, her voice unwavering despite her pale face. “I’m here to reclaim it.”
Grimmy’s eyes narrowed into slits as his smile widened. “Oh?” He plucked Lindyss off his head and placed her in front of Mary. “You two should fight.”
“Huh?” Lindyss and Mary asked at the same time.
Lindyss glared at Grimmy. “This is entertainment for you, isn’t it?”
“I’ll give you the devil if you win,” Grimmy said to Mary as he folded his front paws and rested his chin on top of them. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
“I don’t particularly like thrashing brats,” Lindyss said as she scratched the back of her head with an awkward expression on her face. “How about you surrender?”
Mary charged at Lindyss while swinging her sword in response.
“Such a violent girl,” Lindyss said as she twisted her torso, evading Mary’s sword strike by a hair’s breadth. As Mary brought her arm back up to swing again, Lindyss flicked a tiny ball made of shadows at Mary’s wrist. The shadow ball collided with Mary’s armor, knocking her arm back and interrupting her attack. “How about it? Want to talk now?”
Mary’s mouth hung open as she blinked at her arm that was knocked back by what she assumed was the magical equivalent of a pebble. Her eyes wavered as she bit her lower lip. “As expected of the wife of a dragon,” she said, meeting Lindyss’ gaze as she brought her sword up to her mouth.
“Wait, hold on, you’re misunderstanding something,” Lindyss said, her expression darkening as she placed her hands on her hips. “I’m single, alright? What are you—”
Mary ran her tongue along the edge of her blade, coating the black metal with a layer of blood. Her face grew pale as she tilted her chin down and pressed her still-bleeding tongue against her armor. Her armor flashed with a red light as her blood trickled down while circling around to her back, forming runic patterns along its surface that glowed like lava running down the side of a volcano.
“Oh-ho?” Grimmy raised his brows as he shuffled backwards further into the cave. “That’s a branch of magic I haven’t seen in a long time. But most people carry around the blood of others to fuel it. Why aren’t you?”
Mary froze like a startled deer. “…My blood is more efficient,” she mumbled after a brief moment of hesitation. She raised her head and knocked the hilt of her sword against her breastplate. “Null-magic.”
“Is that what it sounds like?” Lindyss asked Grimmy without taking her eyes off of Mary.
“Why don’t you test it out?” Grimmy asked back with a smile. Though Lindyss couldn’t see his face, she knew his smile was a smug one just by hearing his voice. “If you lose this fight, I’ll stick another soul in you so you won’t lose the next one.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t,” Lindyss said as she took a step forward. A smoke-like hand shot out of Mary’s shadow and grabbed onto her ankle. The bloody runes on Mary’s sabatons flashed red, and the hand disappeared. Lindyss clicked her tongue as she leapt backwards, dodging a horizontal strike by Mary. Lindyss seemed to float as she was pushed back by the wind pressure that accompanied Mary’s swing, and before the cursed elf could even touch her feet against the ground, Mary was already slashing down at her head with an overhand strike. A purple aura sprang out of Lindyss’ back, forming wings that flapped hard once, shoving her to the side.
Mary’s brow furrowed as her sword struck the ground, creating a ten-meter long fissure in the earth. She whipped her head around and leapt to the side, following Lindyss, but the cursed elf had left a glob of purple aura in the air which flew towards Mary’s face. Mary slashed at it with her red sword. Unfortunately for her, the glob split in two and avoided the strike before congealing behind the sword and glopping onto her. It clung to her nose and mouth, squirming its way inside.
Mary’s eyes widened as she grabbed at the aura, pulling bits of it out at a time with her gauntlet as a black rune shone on her forehead. Black lines ran down from the rune towards her nose and mouth, digging out the offending purple aura with a black aura of its own. By the time Mary had finished clearing her respiratory passageways, hundreds of tiny red fireballs were floating around her.
Lindyss smiled at Mary and raised one hand. Chills ran down Mary’s spine as she leapt forward, but she was too slow. Lindyss snapped her fingers, and a chain of explosions swallowed the empress whole. Lindyss flew up into the air instead of waiting for the smoke to clear and created more and more tiny red fireballs that floated above the ground and in the sky like little fireflies. When the smoke cleared, Mary appeared with blood pouring out of the cracks in her armor, her face covered with soot and her hair frizzy. A black aura crawled down her body, taking on the shape of a turtle as she tilted her head at Lindyss. “How did that hurt me through my null-magic?” Mary asked as her bleeding stopped.
Lindyss smiled, and another tiny fireball exploded. Mary didn’t even flinch as her aura absorbed the impact. “Simple,” Lindyss said with a shrug. “All anti-magic works on the same principle—distorting the mana inside a spell. It looks like your null-magic disperses mana on contact. If I create a tiny explosive fireball, you can cancel it out before it explodes, but you can’t do anything to stop the physical impact if it does.
“Do you always lecture people while fighting?” Grimmy asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Shut up,” Lindyss said, glaring at Grimmy. “She reminded me of Vur for a second. Look at her head tilt and wide, innocent eyes.”
“Huh,” Grimmy said, stroking his chin. “You’re right. She does remind me of Vur.”
“You two know Vur?” Mary asked, her head tilting even further.
Grimmy snorted. “She’s stalling for time to heal her injuries,” he said to Lindyss. “Why are you letting her do that? You’re monologuing like a final boss in a play. If you don’t watch out, she’ll cut you down and win.”
Lindyss rolled her eyes. “I know. Did you think I wasn’t doing anything?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Without warning, the ground underneath Mary dropped straight down and crumbled into bits before she could use it to jump up, revealing a seemingly bottomless hole. Lindyss clapped her hands once, causing the hole to secrete an oil-like substance along its walls as its surface hardened into diamond. “There, now she’s trapped like a turtle in a jar.”
“You’re getting a lot of use out of that geomancer’s soul, aren’t you?” Grimmy asked as he lumbered out of the cave and peered into the trap. Through the darkness, he could see Mary leaping onto the walls but sliding down instantly due to the oil. The hole was in the shape of a cone, larger at the very bottom and narrower at the top.
“It’s convenient,” Lindyss said as she landed on Grimmy’s head, disabling her aura wings and the tiny floating fireballs. “Besides, it’d be a waste not to use it after suffering for so many years just to incorporate it.”
“You’re not going to finish her off?” Grimmy asked.
“Nope.” Lindyss leaned back as she drew a book and a drink out of her pocket. “It’s easily ten times more difficult to capture someone alive without injuring them than it is to kill them.” She placed a straw into her drink and took a sip. “This is a show of power. Once she gives up, I’ll capture her and use her to train Vur or something. She looks like she’d make a good sparring partner. She’s really fast—I almost got hit by her attacks.”
***
“That’s definitely Grimmoldesser,” Emile whispered to Susan. The two phoenixes huddled next to each other, hiding behind a particularly large leaf. “Look, it’s Lindyss. She’s the elf who kicked Kondra’s butt.”
“Don’t call the dragon matriarch by her name,” Susan said, smacking the back of Emile’s head with her wing. “That’s disrespectful. But you’re right. I wonder what those two are doing here?”
“Does it matter?” Emile asked and shrugged. He stood up straight and spread his wings before hopping off the branch.
Susan’s ey
es widened. “Emile! Did you forget Grimmoldesser tried to eat us but only stopped because Tafel was there!?” She leapt off the branch after her brother, tackling him to the ground. The two tumbled in the dirt, rolling and screeching until they collided with a hard wall-like object. They froze and fell silent as they untangled and raised their heads. A black dragon’s face was gazing back down at them.
“Grimmoldesser!” Emile said. “Um. Hi.”
Grimmy exhaled a puff of smoke through his nostrils, blowing Emile’s and Susan’s feathers backwards. “It rarely happens, but sometimes snacks really do appear by themselves,” he said with a grin.
Lindyss smacked the scales near Grimmy’s eye. “Those are Tafel’s siblings,” she said. “Don’t eat them.”
“Hmm?” Grimmy raised an eyebrow as his eye rolled up to stare at Lindyss. “And how do you know that? You can tell phoenixes apart?”
“Of course not,” Lindyss said and snorted. “How is anyone supposed to distinguish one red bird from another when they look exactly the same?” She pointed off into the distance. “I heard them talking while they were hiding in that tree over there.” She took a sip from her drink before leaning over Grimmy’s snout and gestured towards the phoenixes. “If you two are here, does that mean Vur and Tafel are nearby as well?”
“Maybe,” Emile said and shrugged.
Lindyss knit her brow. “Maybe? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, either she’s here,” Emile said as flames spouted out of his beak, “or she’s been eaten by a pack of wild dogs. Either one.”
Lindyss stared at Emile. A few moments of silence passed. Lindyss turned her head towards Susan, who was fidgeting by shifting her weight from one leg to the other. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Because, clearly, your brother has issues.”
“Right,” Susan said, bobbing her head up and down, causing Emile to let out squawks of protest. “What Emile meant to say was we don’t know because he dared Tafel to leave and was shocked when she actually left. Tafel left behind a bead for us to let her know if and when we were in danger, but Emile threw it away because he’s a butt.”
“If I’m a butt, then you’re a sister to a butt!”
“So if I eat them, no one will know?” Grimmy asked, blinking at Lindyss.
“Don’t eat my friends!” a voice boomed out of the hole in the ground. A few seconds later, there was a thumping sound and a squeal along with a groan accompanied by the clanking of metal. Shrieks and clangs roared out of the hole as the ground shook while cracks formed on the earth’s surface. Grimmy took a step back while Lindyss furrowed her brow and spread her aura wings, ascending into the sky.
The ground crumbled as it sank inwards, creating a crater filled with gravel and dirt. An arm shot out of the center of the rubble, and Mary climbed out with her armor and sword dyed completely red. Blood poured out of her like a fountain from two deep slashes on her neck, and her face was so pale that her lips were white. A roar echoed out of Mary’s mouth as she swung her sword upwards, lifting it above her head. The air caught fire and exploded as a red line surged out of her blade, striking Lindyss and cutting off her right arm. The cursed elf had tried to dodge, but Mary’s attack had traveled too fast.
Mary stomped her leg against the ground, and her body vanished, reappearing in the air in front of Lindyss. The empress’ eyes were dull, and her gaze unfocused, but her following sword strike was sharp, gleaming like a polished gem as it sliced down at Lindyss. A white shield emitting a soft glow appeared out of nowhere, blocking the sword strike, causing the muscles in Mary’s arm to tear from the backlash as her blade bounced off.
Mary flew backwards through the sky from the impact, but she righted herself and kicked off the air with her legs, flying back towards Lindyss like an arrow but destroying her knees in the process. “Null-magic!” she shouted, her sword glowing with an even brighter red light. She swung it horizontally at Lindyss’ waist, but the shield floating above the cursed elf intercepted the blow. Mary’s blade bounced off the shield again, causing her body to spin in the air and crash into the ground, blood pouring out of her neck, arms, and legs as she panted, her eyes shifting to stare at Lindyss in the sky. Mary propped herself up on one elbow, gritting her teeth. She raised her sword arm, pointing the trembling blade at Lindyss, and collapsed, her eyes glazing over.
Lindyss frowned as she flew down and picked up her severed arm. She touched the two wounded bits together, and a stringy white light stitched her arm back onto her torso. “She ruined my shirt,” Lindyss said and wiped away the sweat on her forehead. “Is she dead?”
“Almost,” Grimmy said, “just like you.” He grinned at Lindyss. “If you didn’t have that holy shield spell from that blessed warrior of light’s soul, you would’ve died.”
“Then it’s a good thing I had it, isn’t it?” Lindyss asked as she walked over to Mary’s unmoving body that the two phoenixes had gathered around.
“Stop!” Emile shouted. “What are you doing!? Where do you think you’re touching!?”
“Don’t struggle!” Susan said as she tore away bits of her brother’s feathers with her talons. “This is all your fault in the first place, you dumb butt!” She grumbled as she pinned her brother down and systematically stripped the feathers near his butt. Then she hopped off of him and stuffed the feathers into Mary’s mouth. Susan took in a deep breath and blew a small flame onto the feathers, igniting them. A golden glow encompassed Mary’s body, healing her wounds at a visible rate.
Lindyss ignored the process and looted Mary’s sword. A frown appeared on her face as the blade flashed with a blue light and said, “Don’t touch me! Stop groping my hilt! Let go, let go!” With a swift slap to the surface of the blade, Lindyss dispersed the blue light, silencing the sword. Then she stuck it into her pocket.
“You’re going to let me see that, right?” Grimmy asked, nudging Lindyss’ waist with his claw, forcing a yelp out of the cursed elf.
Lindyss rubbed her side and glared at Grimmy. “This is my trophy.”
“If I didn’t force you two to fight, you wouldn’t have had a reason to claim a trophy in the first place,” Grimmy said with a grin. “I just want a look at it later.”
Lindyss sighed. She knew he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Alright, whatever. Just don’t force me to fight your fights again, okay?”
Grimmy scratched his snout and looked away. “Eh.... The moon’s nice tonight, huh?”
13
“That’s odd…,” Mr. Skelly said as he leaned back, a book in his armored hands. He was sitting beside Alice, the two of them covered in a layer of dust with piles upon piles of books lying on the ground beside them. Every time one of them turned a page, another cloud of dust would fall out from within the book. Alice had to wear a facemask that covered her nose and mouth to breathe properly.
“What’s odd?” Alice asked, her voice muffled. She placed the book in her hands onto her lap and grabbed her glasses, tapping them against the chair’s armrest to knock the dust off the glass that was obscuring her view.
“I thought I sensed the mistress’ aura,” Mr. Skelly said, meeting Alice’s gaze. “But she’s supposed to be on vacation. What’s she doing here?”
“Maybe she’s vacationing here?” Alice asked. “She seems to be all powerful, so it’s not unlikely that she’d show up at another continent, right? Who doesn’t like sightseeing?”
“The mistress isn’t all powerful,” Mr. Skelly said, shaking his head. “She’s actually quite fragile. Not too long ago, she’d die if she stepped out into sunlight.”
“What, is her other weakness garlic?” Alice asked, rolling her eyes. “Or perhaps a wooden stake driven through her heart would kill her?”
Mr. Skelly removed his helmet and dropped his mouth open while widening his eye sockets. “How did you know?”
“Wait, really? That’s it?”
“No, of course not,” Mr. Skelly said as he put his helmet back on. There wasn�
��t a need to because Alice punched it off along with his skull. “That was a joke.” He paused as he groped around for his head. “Do you think the black dragon that Mary went to find is Grimmoldesser? If the mistress is here, then certainly Grimmoldesser’s here as well.”
“Didn’t you say there was nothing going on between those two?” Alice asked. “If the mistress is taking a vacation, why would Grimmoldesser be there too?”
“Grimmoldesser and the mistress are like … cookies and milk,” Mr. Skelly said, picking up his helmeted skull. “Cookies are in relationships with other cookies, and milk belongs with other milk, but despite that, the two are perfectly suited for each other, but alas, their love can’t come to be because they’re both eaten.”
“That was a horrible analogy,” Alice said. “Stick to making jokes, please.” She shook her head. “If you’re curious about them, why don’t you ask? You have some kind of mental connection to the mistress, don’t you?”
“Was it really that bad of an analogy? I thought it was pretty good,” Mr. Skelly said and shrugged. “I don’t want to bother the mistress while she’s on vacation. If it’s Mary we’re talking about, Apollonia said she was incredibly challenged directionally; there’s no way she could’ve found them in the first place. No doubt, she’s going to wind up back here because where else would Vur’s scent be the strongest if not on Vur himself? Besides, even if Mary meets Grimmoldesser, what’s the worst that could happen? At most, she’ll be kidnapped and used as an experimental specimen.”
“…That sounds pretty bad,” Alice said. “Hasn’t she already been traumatized enough in her childhood?”
“It’s alright,” Mr. Skelly said as he screwed his head back on. “To undo one trauma, all you have to do is traumatize them again until they forget about the first one.” He tapped on the book on his lap before Alice could retort. “More importantly, where do you think these books came from? Apollonia said her knights uncovered them from a dungeon, but what kind of dungeon stores books inside of them?”
