Chapter CVII (107) - Devour

Sojan smashed into the deck at their feet, his body pale and stretched across his bones.

“All spent up,” he wheezed out. “Not great in a battle of attrition. Best of luck to you, Kaga Kizu.”

Inari looked almost angelic as he descended from above. Kizu stood between him and Anata, refusing to move. He might not be able to cast spells like normal, but he could still manage a bit from his familiar bond.

Inari backhanded him. The force slammed Kizu into the gunwales next to Kateshi. She looked down at him piteously as he crumpled beneath her.

“I told you to stay behind,” she scolded him. “I’m impressed you found your way here, but it was in your best interest to let the girl die. It’s in everyone’s best interest.”

“Stop lecturing the trash,” Inari said. “But what I’m curious about is the slime here. Did you know about this?”

Basil was struggling to keep his form together. Unlike Kizu’s new antimagic bracelet, Basil’s collar penetrated into his body and appeared to interfere with his innate shapeshifting. Only then did Kizu realize his bracelet was lined with silver. It must be agony for the changeling. His structure began to melt into a writing mass of clear goo, the collar visibly floating within him.

“No. I knew there was a shapeshifting student, but Gizrim explained it as if it was the result of an inhumane experiment on a child. Not as the Ooze Harbinger.”

“I suppose it won’t hurt to kill him while we’re at it. Won’t bring the gnomes back, but we can chop him up and send the pieces all across Sekai as a message for the other denizens.”

“That’s sick, Kusatta.”

Inari chuckled. “I am a warlord for a reason.”

Anata, having regained consciousness, huddled behind Sojan’s body. The body remained stiff and unmoving.

A flash of red from behind the waterfall, followed by a distant bang announced the start of the firework show over the academy. The lake looked like blood under the red lighting.

Kizu pushed himself forward, desperate to put himself between the two of them. He still had one more desperate idea.

His bracelet yanked him back, dangling him next to Professor Kateshi, his feet a dozen centimeters off the deck. Kateshi barely spared him a glance as she focused on Inari reaching out towards the cowering girl in front of him. His hand glowed with white light, as if about to purge her from existence.

Unable to apply his plan to Inari, Kizu reached into his ring with his uncollared hand and pulled out a vial of liquid. As he slammed it into Professor Kateshi, he saw her adjust her position and put up a multi-faceted barrier to protect herself from its effects. Unfortunately for her, the barrier’s protections didn’t apply to stasis. Temporal magic required a unique protection. One she never would think to use against a student. The professor froze in place, completely locked in time. Absorbed through the pores, the potion’s effect would linger for less than a minute.

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Kizu swung his new reptilian leg over and slammed it into her chest, knocking her off the ship. The splash caused Inari’s head to turn.

With Inari’s focus distracted, Anata sprang forward, Sojan in hand. She jabbed the enchanted knife through Inari’s ribs. The man made no move to stop her, unconcerned about the knife. Then his eyes widened. He reached to pull it out of his side but froze, his hand quivering in place right over the hilt.

“Blocked,” Sojan said through Inari’s gritted teeth. “Same as you. Can’t hold.”

Kizu pressed his hand against the bracelet keeping him suspended and channeled through it using Mort’s blood. He desperately clawed at the enchantment, attempting to alter it. The antimagic enchantment remained strong. It was a clear and simple command set on it. But he found a flaw in its secondary command. The enchantment suspending him in the air was less structured and layered on top of the device. He twisted at that, altering it to the point of snapping.

He dropped to his feet, the anti-magic bracelet still on his wrist but no longer with its secondary enchantment. He rushed at Inari. Sojan desperately fought for control and was actively failing. It didn’t matter. So long as he kept the warlord from casting magic.

Kizu braced himself with his new monstrous leg. He wasn’t able to enhance himself with the antimagic restraints, but he pushed using all his available strength from the new leg and tackled Inari with a shoulder into his gut.

The man flipped over the edge to join the professor in the waters below.

Kizu turned and plunged his hands into the glob of goop that Basil had become. He found the collar and ripped it out of his friend, throwing it across the deck. Basil undulated and released what Kizu could only imagine must be a sigh of relief. He slowly began to meld back into the structure of a humanoid.

“We don’t have time,” Kizu said to Anata. “Using Mort, I maybe have enough blood for one jump. If you can refresh his supply, we can escape into the World Dungeon.”

But Anata wasn’t listening, she peered over the gunwales and down into the water. Glancing down, Kizu saw what she stared at. The water had begun to glow. Not only occasional bursts of light from the fireworks, as before, now it was an eerie light mixing with the reds from the show. The flashes of colors had drawn out the lake’s monsters. The massive jellyfish approached the two floating bodies of Inari and Kateshi. Inari clawed at the water around him, summoning currents to push him upwards, but Sojan continued the battle for control, interrupting the currents and creating a chaotic whirlpool that kept them suspended in the water, neither ascending nor descending.

Color drained from Anata, only her single red eye retaining its sheen. She floated slightly off the deck, wisps of black smoke emanating from her.

Anata opened her mouth and spoke.

“Devour.”

The jellyfish's tentacles whipped out, wrapping around the two adults and pulled them in. Even from above water, Kizu could hear the squelch as their heads imploded from the creature’s attack. He remembered the psychonic wave that had hit him while he worked on the ship. And the monster had just been curiously probing him. Unprepared and still frozen in place, they stood no chance against the creature while bloodthirsty. Then they disappeared into its glowing maw. The monster made no further sign of aggression, simply drifting back down into the lake’s depths.

Just like that, two of the most powerful mages on the island died.