Inner Hall- Helen

After a moment of silence, I opened my eyes. Expecting to have died, I found myself staring at the wind demon’s claws hanging centimeters away from my face.

I had thought that it was waiting for me to open my eyes in order to torment me, so I closed my eyes once more.

But, I did not feel any pain or any discomfort except for the throbbing pain from the empty stump where my arm used to be.

When I opened my eyes again, out of curiosity and fear, I found that the wind demon was frozen in place.

After shaking off the illusion that it was just a dream, I noticed that there were strands of light that covered most of the demon’s body.

When I traced them back to their origin, I found that there were a few magic circles invoked around the room.

In total, there were seven magic circles, four of which were in each corner on the ceiling, whilst the other three formed a triangle formation around the demon.

It was a light spell of binding from the glowing light mana essence that gathered around each magic circle. When I thought of the caster of such a powerful spell, I found that there wasn’t a single person within my group that had reached that level.

Then, it dawned on me, and immediately, I turned to look at Mikhail.

Even though demons are weak against light attribute spells, I found him, against all odds, alive.

He staggered up off the ground, and vomited out a half a gallon of blood.

The amount of blood that he had lost before should have killed him alone, yet he managed to stand, wiping the blood from his mouth.

When he saw what had happened to everyone, an aura of death burst forward from his body. It was as if his heart was screaming, wishing to destroy everything, everyone, and tear this entire world apart. It was the sense of staring into death itself. He felt like he no longer needed to hide it back, the surge of bloodlust, the madness, the chaos that he kept deep within him.

It was an entirely different aura than that which he hid himself with, and it was one out of pure wrath that was strong enough to suffocate me.

Feeling my chest beating rapidly, I watched in amazement as he moved towards the demon.

Darkness traced his every movement.

The crimson in his eyes sharpened.

His fingernail extended outward like claws.

“Since you like to play with their body, you wouldn’t feel bad if I played with yours,” he said, grinding his teeth in rage, “would you?”

The demon wanted to speak, but just as he opened his mouth.

Mikhail grabbed his mouth and, with his fingers piercing through the bottom of his mouth, he pulled out his jaw.

“Ah, you will have to excuse me, but it was so repulsing to look at you that I had to tear it off. I am sorry, truly I am, and… um, does it hurt?” Mikhail said softly, as if he truly did feel sorry, “if you don’t answer me, I don’t won’t know when to stop…I told you, answer me! Ah... since you are not going to say anything, you won’t be needing your tongue anymore do you?”

Mikhail reached into his mouth and grabbed his tongue. He began to tear it off slowly whilst savoring the expression on the demon’s face.

“That desperation, that look of fear, I can see why you enjoy it so much,” he said, casting aside the wind demon’s tongue, “since you are a demon, I am sure that your pain tolerance should be higher than the girls you tormented. Isn’t that great? We can truly enjoy ourselves now, can’t we?”

When he realized that his greatest strength had become his worst nightmare, his head slumped down.

He was defeated.

There wasn’t a single motion of resistance.

Mikhail smiles were filled with a deceitful amount of joy that taunted the wind demon to his wit’s end, but with fear carved into his soul, he could only tremble and quiver in front of this monster.

Mikhail, who was smiling pleasantly, reached out with his only hand and forced his thumb and index finger into the demon’s right eye. In attempt to stop him, he closed his eyes with all of his strength.

Mikhail’s finger simply tore through the thin layer of skin and gouged out his right eye mercilessly. Rather than removing his eyes, Mikhail stopped after he crushed the removed eye in his palm in front of the demon’s remaining eye to let him see it all. Mikhail wanted him to experience it all, everything that could crush any person’s will to live.

Even though he had lost his tongue, eye, and had his jaw torn off, the demon tried desperately to scream for help. Realizing that his end would not be swift, or painless, he was desperate for someone to come to his aid.

There was not a single thought left of fighting against this monster in front of him. It was the only thing that he could do in order to live. He began to struggle, but the more he struggled, the deeper the light strings cut into his flesh. Just looking at him, I saw that there remained not a single ounce of power or dignity in him. They were stripped off him and destroyed by Mikhail who was far more vicious than himself.

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I wanted to close my eyes, but I found that I took joy in watching him suffer. It was a disgusting feeling, to feel this much hatred and release. But, if I could see my face, I am sure I would be smiling.

As the minutes passed, the desperate attempt to scream for help grew quieter and quieter as the wind demon’s body was reduced to a shadow of its former self.

When he noticed Chloe’s condition, Mikhail stopped himself from going any further.

With only the bones holding his joints together, claws and joint broken and twisted in manners that should not be possible, and chunks of flesh removed from his stomach in order to have his organs pulled out and left hung in the air like jungle vines, the demon did not have the energy or will power to move, even if it could at this point.

There was practically nothing left but an empty shell of a demon. 

When he came over, I remembered Chloe’s fallen body in front of me.

Her body has become so cold.

“Mikhail, you have to save Chloe!” I shouted, knowing that I was asking him for too much, “she was hurt protecting me.”

He knelt down and took her hand.

Then, he looked at me.

I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. His face had already said it all.

Mikhail bit down on his lips before saying, “she is barely alive, but in her condition, without proper treatment, she will die.”

“C-can you do anything, Mikhail, to save her?” I asked, holding her tightly in my arm, hoping to share with her all of the heat within my body, “she is the only one I consider family, you have to save her Mikhail.”

“I can…” Mikhail said, looking rather perplexed.

“Why are you hesitating?” I asked him cautiously.

Even though he must know how to save her, why didn’t he do it? What do hold him back, I thought, trembling at the idea.

“What I will do to her, I believe that if she knew, she would rather die,” he replied, holding back something.

“What… are you planning to do to her?” I asked, feeling like the situation has become far stranger than I had thought.

“The only way is to heal her with dark magic,” he responded.

“You can heal with dark magic?” I let out subconsciously.

“The truth is that both darkness and light can heal, just as there are two distinct races under the goddesses,” he explained, “without the ability to heal, it would make demons far weaker and be put in a disadvantage. In order to prevent that, there were methods invented in order to heal a body of its injury.”

I knew that I shouldn’t ask, but with Chloe’s life on the life, I spoke, “wh-what would be the consequences…?”

“There’s no real strings attached to using a dark healing spell,” he replied, “but since it’s a dark spell, it will react negatively to the light that naturally flows within every life belonging to the races of light.”

“…”

“In order for me to heal her with dark magic, I must first… turn her into a demon,” he said without holding a single thing back, “that is why I do not believe she will want to be brought back to life.”

“…” I stared vacantly at him, unable to process the words he had said.

No, rather, I wanted to believe that I did not know what he was saying.

“That is why I do not think that she will want to live if she knew what I would have to do.”

“… No, you have to save her life.”

“Helen-”

“Please don’t say anything else,” I said, raising my eyes to look at him, “I will bear her resentment. So, please… please save her.”

“…She will truly hate you for this.”

I know I am being selfish, but please.

“Chloe is my only family…”

Mikhail stared silently at me, as if understanding my pain.

A large magic circle composed of one central magic circle encompassed by eight other magic circle, appeared underneath us.

When it formed, a dark hue began to pour out from underneath, filling up our surrounding with a dark fog.

Chloe’s body floated up into the air. From the root to the tip of her hair, her scarlet color became submerged into darkness, while her body turned beautifully white.

As these changes happen, her wounds began to heal and disappeared without a single trace of a lingering scar.

There wasn’t anything that was different about her that I could perceive.

She did not sprout a heart-shape tail, or a pair of wings. Besides her hair, and the beautiful color of her body, her figure was not altered.

Once completed, she descended onto his arm.

Mikhail laid her down on the ground and covered her with his shirt before retrieving the arm that he had lost.