by Tj Dixon
The other slaves are all bound by stone straps to the floor in a large circle with a gap for Luna. They are already in position for the ritual. Luna tries to resist but using magic wind magic I easily force her down onto the floor and restrain her with a stone strap. Being an earth mage she would normally be able to easily manipulate it and break free, but this room is my domain. Thanks to a little demon and a powerful enchantment her powers are useless here. A more powerful mage would be able to overcome it of course, but not a weakling like Luna.
The beds are standing upright in the corners of the room nearest the door. I pick up my notebook from the floor near my bed and read the name of the demon I need to summon. I practise its name a few times and am sure I have it right. Demon names and words follow logic just like the words of an invocation, so if it is spelt one way there is only one way to pronounce it.
“Ling, are you ready?” I ask.
“Yes.” Ling says eagerly. Luna makes a muffled sound but her mouth is filled with something grey. Ling must have done that. Good thinking. The others don’t dare make a sound.
Standing outside the circle at the mirror and opposite the door I gather my powers and enter the trance of summoning. The words of summoning are spoken in my voice, but it is my soul not my body that speaks them so they are heard by those I intend them for and no others. The name I speak sends my words to the hell that the name belongs to.
“Vesperius, Unspryatio, Yunderius, Jyratio, Citarius, king of hell, lord of death, serpent of the abyss, I, who command the dark power of water, the holy power of fire, and the unholy power of the void call upon you! I present unto thee a living sacrifice of eleven ripe human maidens. I command thee to appear before me and obey. Come now, by the pact of the eternal night! Come now, by the power of my soul! Obey my soul! Take what I have bestowed unto thee! This is your right! This is your duty! Obey!” I open my eyes and see the human circle is filled with flames and a dark mist.
“Thank you Ash, my dear.” Ling laughs and pats me on my back. I look at her in confusion.
“I obey only Maou Hime.” A dark voice utters. Maou Hime? A princess of hell? Daughter of the Maou? They are meant to be powerful, but not powerful enough to command unyielding obedience. If she were here, sure, but… Wait… Could it be? I look at Ling and realise it not only could be, it is.
“That’s right. This girl’s family summoned me, but they like you were weak, so I killed them. I ate this girl’s soul, and possessed her body. Then I killed your mother and made you into a pet project. Now I can return to hell and take you with me. Thank you Ash, or should I say, Angelika.” She laughs and pats me on the back again.
As she says it everything comes back. My mother didn’t die of a disease. She was killed in front of me by a laughing demon. Reduced to ash in an instant on that snowy day. I begged to be spared and she said she’d play with me for a while. If I entertained her enough I would be spared. Probably...
Is this true though? Is Ling really a demon? Or are these fake memories? Is Ling just possessed? Was this demon more powerful than we realised?
“You can ask those questions in hell.” Ling tells me with another awful laugh.
“Let’s eat first.” That dark voice says and Ling nods.
“Yes, let’s eat.”
“Sorry.” A familiar sounding voice says and we all turn to the now open door. Who is that white haired girl with the golden tinted skin standing there? Why does she look so familiar? Also why is the door open?
“More food.” The dark voice laughs.
“Actually, no.” A calm and vaguely familiar male voice says from within the darkness. All of a sudden the darkness is thrown about as if in a great wind and then it is gone. I hear a thud beside me and turn to see Ling’s lifeless body. My best friend betrayed me and now she is dead. Perhaps she was never truly my friend, but my memories of her can’t just be erased even now her magic is gone.
As if a blindfold has been removed I realise what I was doing. Ling’s words and magic convinced me it was ok as long as it was to save myself. It wasn’t though. It could never be ok. Tears roll down my cheek.
“Someone, anyone, kill me now.” I beg and feel a claw pierce my back. So my demon took that as an order. If a demon kills me I’ll be dragged to hell with it. Maybe I deserve it though. I don’t resist.
Chapter 18 (Peter)
Bright light surrounds me, but only for a moment. I am plunged back into darkness and I feel something pressing the air out of me. My body is unable to resist so I am forced to use wind magic to fill my lungs with air. I hear talking but it is out of focus.
Then I hear a familiar voice say just one word in her ever so polite tone, yet with a bit more force than I am used to from her. What Yu Kii says is so like her. “Sorry.”
My senses have returned and everything comes back into focus. There is a dark mist around me, but that is clearly Yu Kii standing there looking radiant as a star. Perhaps I will see the stars again soon, but the sight of Yu Kii is much more comforting now than the sight of those distant stars I have known all my life.
“More food.” A dark voice laughs. It is directed at Yu Kii and instinctually I know it is calling Yu Kii food.
“Actually, no.” I say calmly but with anger deep within my soul. I clear the mist around me with a strong wind. It sweeps the mist back into a portal of some sort. I feel an aura shoot through the portal just as the portal closes. I see the dead body that it came from fall to the floor.
There is a girl standing there with tears rolling down her cheeks. She is about the same age as Elucia and Rin and she has typical Contractian features, but they seem dimmed somehow and so does her aura. It feels like something has been eating away at her soul for years.
“Someone, anyone, kill me now.” She begs and a claw pierces her back. I sense the demon behind her only as it pierces her flesh. It seems connected to her. Perhaps it was bound to her but whatever the connection it clearly plans to kill her. Even though that was her request I cannot accept it. Even though she just stands there acceptingly I cannot just allow her to be killed.
I blast the demon with lightning, but my lightning is much more powerful than normal thanks to Elucia’s power. The blast is deafening in this small room even with the door open. I must have used more power than I planned to but the demon is well and truly fried. I sense its aura fade as its body falls to the ground.
The girl stands there with blood pouring out of her back and then falls forwards. Does Lucy have enough power left to heal her? Wait, where is Lucy? She was meant to come through first but I can’t sense her anywhere. It is just Yu Kii, the girl and me.
Yu Kii thankfully reacts quickly as I just stand there in a panic. Yu Kii reaches the girl and catches her just as she was about to hit the ground. Taking a small vial from her shirt pocket Yu Kii pours a clear liquid over the bloody wound. Blood stops flowing from the wound and skin has soon replaced the bloody mess, though the skin is covered in splotches of green goo. The goo strangely has a faint aura.
“Is she ok?” I ask and Yu Kii turns to face me with a relieved smile.
“Yes, she’ll be fine. When did you get back and where is everyone else? Are they ok too?” Yu Kii asks and I have to focus for a moment to remember.
“Lucy opened a gate to bring us home. It was meant to connect to her mother’s home, but it brought me here somehow. I am sure everyone went through, but I don’t know where they are. Perhaps they reached Lucy’s mother’s home like they were meant to. I hope they did.”
“I’ll contact Rin.” Yu Kii says and closes her eyes. Looking at Yu Kii I wonder whether she was always this cute. It isn’t just her body, but her aura. No this wasn’t how her aura was when I last saw her. It is much brighter now. My eyes are drawn to her golden tinted skin and her soft short white hair. Her whole body, but especially her arms and legs seem more delicate than I remember and as she opens her green eyes they shine brightly like her aura. It is definitely Yu Kii though. “Is something wrong?”<
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“No. What did Rin say?”
“She told me not to let you go anywhere and that she would port over there to check.” Yu Kii says and I nod. That makes sense.
“What’s that green goo on her?” I ask pointing at the goo where the wound was.
“What green goo?” Yu Kii asks confused. There’s no reason why she shouldn’t be able to see it as it is all over the girl’s skin where the wound was. I look at Yu Kii confused and then reach down to scoop a little up in my fingers.
“This green goo.” I say and show her. Her eyes go wide.
“I sense something demonic.” Yu Kii says staring hard at my fingers. Then she gasps. “That’s your left hand! How did you get it back?”
“Its dwarven crafted. Both my hands are now, since I lost my right hand too. They’re not real, but they feel real, so they may as well be.” I explain. Then I frown. “So this goo is demonic?”
“Yes, but I can’t see it. I only sense a faint aura.” Yu Kii says and I look back at the girl lying unconscious on the ground. I wipe the goo off my fingers and then pick the rest up from the girl with gentle wind magic.
“So do you think burning it should work?” I ask.
“Rin says they are at Lucy’s home. They’ll be there for a while. It sounds complicated, but she told me to tell you that if disappear again without seeing her she’ll hunt you down to the furthest ends of the universe and make you wish you were dead.” Yu Kii says with a wince. I am glad to hear they are safe and I have no intention of going anywhere so I just smile and nod. Then Yu Kii frowns and shakes her head. “Burning with fire magic wouldn’t be a good idea. More lightning would be better.”
“Ok.” I say and focus on the goo. I blast it with lightning three times. There is now just a charred mess on the ground and the aura is gone.
“So what are we going to do about her slaves?” Yu Kii asks sounding worried.
“Her slaves?” I ask confused. Yu Kii points at a ring of people bound to the floor with stone straps and each wearing a large white cloth. How did I miss them?! I look Yu Kii in the eye and firmly tell her. “Shut the door.”
“Ok.” Yu Kii says and quickly does so.
“Who is that girl?” I ask pointing at the unconscious girl on the floor.
“Ash Snow. She’s been winning the battles in the tournament lately and she either enslaved or inherited each of those slaves. They either used to be our classmates, or would have been if they hadn’t been enslaved before we were promoted. Ash was being controlled by a demon though.”
“So when she was freed she wanted to die?” I ask just to be sure I understand correctly.
“Yes.”
“What were you doing here?”
“I sensed a demonic gate open.” Yu Kii explains.
“How did you get in?”
“The door enchantment was weakened by all the demonic energy, so I managed to open it with a spell.” Yu Kii tells me.
“Why didn’t you bring help?”
“Demons are easier for me to deal with alone. Your methods were impressive though.” Yu Kii says sounding genuinely impressed.
“I just blew the mist back through the portal.” I shrug.
“That isn’t as easy as it sounds. That mist was a powerful demon that could easily eat the soul of anyone who came into contact with it. You were lucky you didn’t touch it.”
“I was standing in the middle of it.” I tell Yu Kii and she looks at me strangely.
“You must be confused.” Yu Kii says cautiously. She seems scared I’m going to get angry, but it doesn’t really matter so I don’t argue or really care.
“We’d better wake Ash. She may try to kill herself, but we should be able to stop her. At the very least we should get her to free her slaves first if she isn’t willing to carry on living. I don’t want to give up on her though.”
“I’ll let you do the talking. I doubt I could convince her of anything.” Yu Kii tells me.
“Do you think we should get help?” I ask. Yu Kii considers for a moment before shaking her head.
“I can’t think of anyone who would stand a better chance of convincing her.” Yu Kii tells me.
“Then I’d better do my best.” I say and sigh before picking Ash up with wind magic so she is hanging from the air in front of me. I give her a small shock, which wakes her instantly. “Hello Ash.”
“Who…? Oh, Peter…” She says dully. She sounds tired and she looks scared.
“Any chance of freeing your slaves?” I ask directly. She blinks.
“So that was why you saved me.” She says wearily.
“I hadn’t actually noticed them at that point. Too disoriented and too much going on I suppose.”
“So why did you save me, even after I asked to be killed?” She asks, scared and confused.
“Do I need a reason to save someone’s life? Even if you had given up on living I can’t accept that.” I tell her.
“Even after I tried to sacrifice our classmates? I suppose you didn’t know them though.” She says. I suppress the urge to slap her.
“Whether I knew them or not, I can’t accept such a brutal act. You were being controlled though.” I tell her angrily. Then I stare coldly into her eyes and ask again. “Will you free them?”
“Yes.” She answers with a flinch. “Then I’ll kill myself.”
“Coward.” I tell her angrily.
“What?” She asks with a gasp.
“Coward. It would be better and stronger to live on and atone for whatever you may have done or tried to do. Why do you even need to be punished for something you did whilst you were being controlled?”
“I should have been stronger. I should have resisted.”
“You were being controlled for years if your aura is anything to go by. How old were you when that demon started to control you?” I ask.
“You can tell that much from my aura?” She asks in shock. I nod and she remains silent for a few moments before answering. “Five.”
“How is a five year old meant to resist a demon’s magic?” I ask her.
“I should have broken free before it came to this.” She cries. It is Yu Kii who answers her this time.
“The longer you are under a demon’s control the harder it is to break free. There was no way you could have broken free from that demon’s magic.” Yu Kii tells her.
“I’ll free the slaves, but I don’t know if I can carry on living. Ling was my best friend. My only true friend. I depended on her. For her to be my enemy was hard enough, but for her to be a demon that killed my mother and tried to kill me… Even if I hadn’t tried to kill our classmates…” Ash sobs.
I put her down and she picks up a notebook lying in the corner of the room. She writes eleven contracts and then removes the magic binding the girls lying on the floor. She chants and I sense that an enchantment on the girls is erased. The girls lie there still disoriented and confused.
“All of you, sign this and then leave.” Ash says quietly but everyone’s attention was on her so we all hear her. The girls slowly pick themselves up. They don’t dare say anything but they each look at the contract and sign it before dashing wordlessly from the room. Soon it is just the three of us.
I’m not sure where they are going to go right now or even if they know, but as long as they are free they can start their lives again. I am sure the academy will help them out, as they are all students from the top class. Right now my main concern once they have all been freed is Ash. She is the one who is most likely to kill herself. She looks at me like a scared animal. I have to break the silence. I take a deep breath before doing so.
