by Sarah Lin
"I think that you're working illegally. You couldn't be paid for this find if the authorities are notified, so you always intended to kill us. But you didn't try a sneak attack because you weren't confident in winning, so you took the coward's route."
Immediately the mercenary's smile disappeared. "It would have been easier for you to take a bullet in the back of the head. I'll kill them first."
"You can still walk away from this. I'll ignore the threat if y-" Uncle Frank's words were cut off by a hail of semi-automatic gunfire.
The bullets ricocheted off a hand of blue aura that manifested in front of their uncle. Rick remembered that hand picking them up when they were children and taking them on rides over the yard. This version was far larger, as tall as their uncle and packed with aura. Lucrim bullets could often penetrate aura defenses, but the hand showed no signs of damage.
An instant later, it swept out to strike their opponent, but he skipped to the side: a speed technique just like the Bunyan's Step. Though he fired again, Uncle Frank had automatically manifested another aura hand that deflected the bullets. The mercenary then shifted to firing at Rick instead, but the hand expanded to cover his new target.
While Uncle Frank was focused on that, the mercenary pulled something else from his belt. Rick saw it, but he was too deep in analysis to say something in time. Some sort of aura flared to activate the grenade, then it was flung toward them.
"Move!" Uncle Frank leapt to the side, grabbing Melissa as he went. Rick leapt in the opposite direction before the grenade hit.
There was no explosion, just an expanding blue fog. Yet Rick realized a moment later that all the plants within it were curling up and dying. Whatever it was, he had a feeling that aura wouldn't stop it. He didn't even want to risk his defensive core against a killer's weapon.
The mercenary moved to fire at Rick, and he was about to Bunyan's Step away when a blue hand manifested to defend him. Yet the mercenary seemed to have anticipated this, instead firing at Uncle Frank. This time, he kept up the burst of lucrim bullets, the muzzle of his gun glowing with aura. Uncle Frank staggered back a step and his barrier began to crack.
Rick realized that he had waited for too long, analyzing when he needed to act. He used a Bunyan's Step to leap at their attacker.
He didn't hear the gunshot, just saw that the gun had turned on him as soon as he moved. It must have hit him straight in the chest.
Yet he wasn't dead.
Throwing aside thought, Rick slammed his fist into the mercenary's face. The man went down hard, but he was already raising his gun again. Rick kicked it out of his hands, sending it sailing into the jungle. He intended to kick down at his opponent, but the man flashed away in another swift movement, vanishing from the ruin.
Though Rick kept his eyes on the jungle, he backed up to check the others were okay. Only after he saw that Melissa had taken cover behind a shrine and Uncle Frank was back on his feet did he look down at his chest. His shirt had been torn, he was bleeding, and it felt like a huge area would bruise, but he'd survived a lucrim bullet. That had been without the Triune Golden Spheres, which he quickly activated to prepare for the next attack.
"The two of you can take care of yourselves." Uncle Frank only glanced at them briefly, but he looked a bit guilty. "If I hadn't spent so much time trying to defend you, that might have gone better."
"Are you okay, Rick?" Melissa asked quietly from her position. Rick nodded, but Uncle Frank hushed them both.
"There's no time to talk. Get ready. I don't know who that is, but he's suspiciously well-equipped. He won't give up, so we need to find and disable him before he ambushes us."
Before they could plan any further, a sphere sailed in from the jungle. When it hit there was no explosion, the sphere simply began to sprout legs. It rapidly curled into a scorpion with a presence like a demon, but Rick had never seen anything like it before. As the creature scuttled toward them, he felt a cold presence at his back.
"The enemy has numerous demonic contracts," Katenka whispered into his ear. "The manifestations can be destroyed with force, but he's using them as a distraction."
It was too late to share the warning, as the demonic scorpion was already advancing on them. Uncle Frank had tightened his hand, a blue palm moving down to smash it. But Rick looked past them and saw the mercenary in the trees, hurling another sphere.
Directly overhead. Even as the first scorpion was being crushed, the second was forming above them, rushing down at Uncle Frank's head.
Rick tackled it in midair, slamming the demon into one of the ancient walls. It stabbed at him with its tail, but he was surprised how slow it seemed. He caught the pincer in one hand and struck the creature's head with his elbow until the chitin shattered and the demon dissipated into aura.
As he looked up to defend himself from the mercenary, he found the man gripped in a blue fist. Either he hadn't found his gun or it had fallen, because he merely struggled with his bare hands. Uncle Frank needed a moment to restabilize his aura, but then stepped closer.
"We won't kill you, but-"
"That's right, you won't." The mercenary suddenly spoke... in a woman's voice. His body melted into a succubus, who gave them a cheerful wave before vanishing into demonic aura.
"Don't move." This time it was the mercenary's real voice, coming from behind them. Despite the warning, Rick whirled around to look.
The mercenary had his gun pointed directly at Melissa.
"You're right that I intended to kill you, but circumstances have changed." The mercenary gave them all an unpleasant smile, his finger tense on the trigger. "I still can't let you report this, but we migh-"
Melissa's eyes flared black and a dark field flickered into being between her and the mercenary. Rick wanted to yell at her not to take the risk, but she'd made the right choice: her manifested void had targeted the gun.
The mercenary pulled the trigger... too late to prevent the lucrim in his gun from being drained into the void. It began to drain his hand as well, forcing him to take a step back, eyes widening in shock.
Though Uncle Frank started to move, Rick was there first. He had intended to tackle the mercenary to the ground, but the man leapt away. Rick followed him instantly, colliding with his opponent just as they landed. The mercenary kicked at his legs, but the blow deflected harmlessly, giving Rick time to strike him in the chest.
The mercenary went skidding back across the ruins, tumbling once before hitting a low wall at the end. A blue hand tried to grasp him again, but he pushed himself off the ground, landing atop one of the shrines. Rick tensed as he saw that the mercenary was smiling.
"Well, it seems I've found something even more valuable..." He threw another grenade and Rick realized too late that this one wasn't lethal. Uncle Frank tried to intercept it, but the grenade went directly through the aura hand, then exploded in midair.
Not in a fiery explosion, but tearing open a hole into the demon realm. And not above them, but targeting Melissa. She had a moment to stare in shock before the force of the explosion pulled her in.
Then the portal closed, forming a locked pillar of aura. Rick didn't know what had happened, but he knew that Melissa was trapped on the other side. He saw Katenka appear out of the corner of his eyes, a grim expression on her face. Yet before she could say anything, the mercenary unhooked another pair of grenades and smiled.
"Was that a fully mature ether void? I've never actually seen one. But oh, I know someone who will pay for one."
Rick ignored him and struck the pillar of aura, hoping that he could force it back open. The aura simply ignored his blows, leaving him separated from his sister.
Chapter 35: Bone Contract
Melissa let out a gasp that was suffocated by the sudden force wrenching her from the world. She suddenly found herself adrift in an expanse of pitch black ground and pale sky. Though she hadn't seen what had happened, her surroundings looked like how her brother had described the demon realm.
That meant that she needed to figure out how to summon her aura. When she tried, she found it inaccessible, but he'd said something about that too. She tried to remain calm, since she needed to keep her head if she was going to get back and help her family.
Suddenly a terrible pain shot through Melissa's stomach and she crumpled to her knees. It was exactly where she felt her ether void, and for a terrible moment she feared that it had turned against her again. Yet the pain wasn't the same, it was as if all the life was being drained from her...
"I've only seen this in simulation." The voice was warm and buttery, nothing like how she would have expected a demon to sound. She struggled to look up and saw a creature approaching, looking like a human skeleton with a horned head, face formed from bone.
"It... it hurts..." Melissa tried to summon her aura again and once more failed. It was like she was slowly eroding from the inside...
"We're naturally suited to our own realm, of course." The demon bent down beside her, helping her up. When she touched its hand, the bone felt strangely cool, yet the pain receded. "Humans are mostly unsuited, yet you do have an aura spark at the core of your souls. Most of you. How unusual for a human to have an ether void that was never fixed."
"Just who are you?" As soon as she was standing, Melissa pulled her hand back, even though the pain began to return. Old fears were beginning to rise, but she thought she had overcome them. The ether void wasn't her enemy, it was part of her.
"I am... something like a scientist, you could say. If you agree to let me study you, I'd be happy to help you return to your own realm."
"Study me?"
"Oh yes. Your condition is poor now, but if we were to meet under better circumstances..." The demon waved its hand and a tablet appeared, just like a tablet from the real world. "I'll help you get back, but I'd feel much better if you signed an agreement to work together with me."
Melissa tried to look at the words, but the pain was getting worse and her vision was blurring. Besides, it didn't really matter.
"Screw you!" She tried to strike the tablet, but her hand passed directly through. "You really think I'm that stupid? That somebody helpful just shows up? You're obviously working with that mercenary guy."
"I suppose that would have been too easy." The demon smiled, bone lips pressed together... until they ripped apart, the bone tearing in a jagged line. All of its bones shifted, soft edges becoming cruel spikes. "You're right, I'm not being helpful. But you should still consider yourself lucky. That human fool would have just killed you, wasting all your potential profit."
Shaking her head and gripping her stomach tighter, Melissa tried to shake off the pain. She regained enough focus and managed to push off the ground, sending herself sailing into the air.
A spike of bone exploded through her chest.
The power of it seemed to pin her in place, even as it sent agony through her chest. Yet despite all the pain, Melissa found herself staring downward in horror. Though the spike hadn't torn her skin or shirt, it felt as though it was embedded in her soul. When she struggled to pull it out, the spike felt more solid than the rest of the demon realm, yet she couldn't grip it.
"You don't understand how much danger you're in." The demon floated up in front of her, holding the tablet in one hand and a bone spear in the other. "I may need you alive, but I can cause you a great deal of suffering. And I don't need to do a thing to watch you destroy yourself. The only person who can protect you from the effects is me."
"My... my bro-" The spear of bone cut through her side and she cried out in agony again. Her world completely dissolved into the pain for an instant that seemed to go on far too long.
When she was aware of herself again, pain came first, both from the spikes through her body and the void eroding her from the inside. Her eyes had been open, they just told her nothing. She slowly came back to herself, realizing she was still pinned in midair, the skeleton demon regarding her with its terrible grin.
"You think anyone is coming for you? Passing between realms isn't easy. Even our human partner only has one grenade that can create a portal. Your only choice is to sign the contract with me."
"I..." Her voice came out weak and pained, forcing her to take several gulping breaths to get herself under control. There were tears in the corners of her eyes, no matter how much she tried to blink them away. "Then why are you so desperate to get me to sign?"
"I'm not desperate." The demon smiled, face cracking broader. It manifested another bone spear from the darkness, then very slowly slid it through her heart.
Melissa promised herself that she wouldn't scream and broke that promise. This one hurt so much more, a growing agony spreading through her entire being instead of a single sharp pain. She didn't feel like she would pass out this time, which meant that she felt every bit of it.
When the spike was all the way through her heart, Melissa thought the demon would offer her the contract again. Instead it merely smiled cruelly and formed another, stabbing this one into her thigh. Melissa screamed and thrashed, each pained movement tugging the other spikes impaling her and increasing the pain.
Worse than that was the sheer helplessness. She desperately reached for her aura, but there was nothing. Her ether void pulsed in response, but it still consumed her. There was absolutely nothing she could do, leaving her with a humiliating mix of emotions she could barely name.
At last it ended. A bony hand grasped her arm, briefly making all the pain recede. Now the demon bent close, raising the contract to her again.
"Do you know how long I could torture you here? I don't, but I would be happy to find out. Just watching you come apart would be useful information."
"What... what do I need to do?" She hated how weak her voice sounded.
"All I need is a bit of your blood to sign the contract. You need a special device to bleed here, and I wasn't quite prepared for this, but I can acquire the proper needle."
"No, I... I have one..." Melissa shakily raised her hand into the inner pocket of her robe... and removed it with her middle finger raised.
For just a moment, as the demon stared at her in shock, it was worth it. Then a spear of bone drove through her face and she screamed.
~ ~ ~
As soon as he understood the emergency, Rick began channeling lucrim to Katenka. Far more than he ever had before, but he was desperate to find a way to get to Melissa. As he did so, she seemed to become more solid and flew to the pillar of aura.
"This... they broke the barrier..." She grimaced as she dug her fingers into the aura, as if trying to wrench it back open. "Still weak... but it's not easy..."
"What can I do?" He was ready to throw all the lucrim he had at her, but she shook her head.
"Don't need more... just stop him..."
Rick's movements had bought him a little time, but now the mercenary understood what he was trying to do. The man hurled both grenades, one directly toward them and one toward the ground.
On instinct Rick leapt away, just before another cloud of fog expanded. He desperately looked for the others, but saw that Uncle Frank had pulled himself over it with an aura hand, while Katenka was still working within the fog, apparently unharmed. Still, the life-consuming fog was expanding, preventing access to the closed portal.
No, that was a distraction. The real threat was the second grenade... "He has another demon!" Rick called the warning just before another one of the demonic scorpions leapt at his uncle from behind.
Uncle Frank summoned a blue fist around his entire body, smashing the scorpion skyward. It wasn't dead, but that didn't matter since the mercenary was drawing a sidearm. Given how well-equipped he was, Rick had to assume it could fire lucrim bullets, or was essential to a firearms technique. He leapt directly at his opponent in a Bunyan's Step.
This time the mercenary didn't try to fire at him, just leapt away. Rick was after him the next second and the two of them flashed back and forth across the ruin. Several times the mercenary suddenly reversed,
trying to drive him into the clouds of gas, but Rick kept after him. Thoughts of Melissa set his blood boiling, yet instead of blind rage he found himself overflowing with calculated thoughts of murder.
All at once he was on his opponent, reacting on instinct and hitting the man's neck with his fist. Yet the mercenary had already been firing, several gunshots impacting on Rick's torso. The force of the lucrim bullets sent him staggering back a step, his defensive cores struggling.
Before any more could be fired, a blue palm slammed down between them. The mercenary sneered and raised his gun to fire through it, only for the hand to suddenly sweep at him, slapping him into the jungle. Uncle Frank limped closer, but there was fire in his eyes.
"Go, Rick. Save Melissa."
"But..." Rick looked toward where the mercenary was no doubt regrouping and preparing for an ambush. Yet he saw that within the fog, a portal had been torn open. Katenka was nowhere in sight, but there was no time to think about that.
"I trust you despite these demonic bonds. Trust me to handle this." Something in Uncle Frank's tone broke through to him. Rick nodded sharply to him, then ran toward the portal.
He plunged through the fog in an instant, feeling it eating into him, then suddenly he was skating into the demon realm. His aura lit up around his body almost without thinking, but the Triune Golden Spheres winked out. Fighting here wasn't really an option.
Almost immediately he saw her: Melissa hung in the air, impaled by several long spears that looked like they were made of bone. His heart leapt to his throat: he would have thought she was dead except for how her body shook, yet the agony on her face was almost worse.
Only after seeing her did he even notice the demons. Several scorpions were frozen in swaths of ice, Katenka storming forward. Yet she struggled against a skeletal demon that shattered through her ice and hurled more bone spears at her.
"You!" Realizing that the demon was the one torturing his sister, Rick roared out the word and nearly leapt toward him. Yet he realized, just before the demon gave him a jagged grin, that he couldn't attack the demon. Not here, at least not effectively.
