“No need to worry! It’s just a little mix-up!”
“I’m going to ask the boss to put Emi in charge of Exversia…”
“NO! - Don’t you dare Edward!”
“...”
“I AM NOT GOING BACK TO SUBJIGATING VILLAGES IN THE MIDDLE OF GOD-KNOWS-WHERE!”
The man sighed heavily - “Fine… but if you pull some dumb crap like this again-”
“Stop overreacting or I’ll get the wrong idea.”
“Pfft - dream on shorty…” the man scoffed before standing up and reaching into his pocket for a necklace with a smooth, round, red gem in a small golden cage - it was a teleportation device, although rings are more common nowadays.
“I’m going to report that I’m done, I won’t mention your screw-up… for now…”
“Thank you~!” the woman said giving him a confident thumbs up.
Edward disappeared creating a small breeze as he disappeared.
Meanwhile; Adam, Uriel and I were at the entrance of the tunnels.
“Wait, so are these…like the sewers?” I asked.
“We should go in now before it’s night,” Uriel suggested.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Adam replied.
“...so these are the sewers…”
Stepping inside I was struck with a stale, fungal scent, followed by the scent of rotting meat.
“It might actually smell worse than a sewer…” I commented.
We walked down a long staircase, it was made of stone and without Adam’s torch I wouldn’t have been able to see anything, if I had a fear of heights - I would have died there, because there was no railing or anything, I was just hoping the moss and slimy stone steps wouldn’t make me fall to my doom.
“This place reeks of death…” Uriel commented.
“Yeah…” Adam agreed, his glasses were becoming fogged up due to how cold it was in the tunnel.
A loud guttural scream caused us all to panic, losing my footing I fell down “OH FUU-” I was cut off by water rushing into my mouth - quickly I sat up and tried to stumble to my feet after hearing the loud splashing noise.
“Light!” Uriel exclaimed as the entire room became illuminated with the light equivalent to an average day outside, it came from the ball which appeared in Uriel’s open palm, the ball mas made from five magic circles with the smallest one the very top and bottom and the biggest in the middle, they all rotated in different directions.
As his light illuminated the tunnel we were finally able to see what was truly inside the tunnel - it looked like a bipedal dog, the size of an elephant - with human teeth and massive, twitching eyes that observed us - it’s fur was a wet, greasy, dark brown with black patches.
The monster let out another ear-piercing screech - “It’s a demon, you don’t stand a chance against it.” Uriel said, seemingly a little disappointed - maybe he was hoping for use to be able to go in deeper into the tunnel and see something even worse, or maybe he hoped we could actually deal with this threat.
Seemingly disregarding the light spell the monster pressed forward, ramming into me making me painfully aware of how fragile the human body is, with the might of a small truck it pushed me into a wall, even for someone like me who died two hundred times - the fact is, the nervous system is not carried over from world to world, only your state of mind.
Just barely holding back a shriek of agony I fell down into the water limply, Using the height to his advantage, Adam leapt off the stairs and onto the monster’s back, digging his claws into it - the tactic wasn’t very effective - in fact it turned out even less effective than expected with the monster swinging around and jumping up and down until Adam fell down into the water.
“Like I said - you’re outmatched!” Uriel announced before letting go of the light spell, bathing the room in darkness, soon after the room became illuminated again - the light coming from the spear which Uriel held in his hand, its tip massively oversized, the entire spear looked like it was made from pure light.
He pulled his arm back, before tossing the spear towards the monster, it dodged it again - its unusual ability to dodge attacks and charge at people was problematic.
While the monster stared at Uriel - evaluating whether or not it should charge at him or not, it was caught off guard by Adam who dug his claws just above the creature heels in hope of immobilising it.
The creature reacted with a shriek and an attempt to dodge again, this time stumbling and crashing into a wall - it’s gaze focusing on Adam who was watching Uriel - the monster followed his gaze only to be met with a solid-light spear to the torso, instantly charring it so that only a charred husk remained.
“Well - I think that should be a decent enough explanation for you two aren’t meant to be here…” Uriel said with a raised eyebrow.
I was a little buy being in crippling pain to react to Uriel’s attitude problems.
I slowly reached down into my pocket, pulling out a handful of healing bullets and crushing them in my hand - suddenly feeling my ribs become ribs again with a snap.
“FUCK that hurt…” I complained, standing up and spitting out the blood that pooled in my mouth.
“Shit, I forgot about you, sorry!” Adam hurried over to me where I raised a thumbs up until I was done spitting blood - “I’m good, no worries…”
“Thank for the help man! What was that spear anyway?” Adam asked looking up to where Uriel stood.
“It was one of my only offensive spells - creatively named ‘Spear of light’ ”
“What a stupid name…” I cackled wiping the blood from my mouth before realising we’re still standing a dark room - no guarantee more of them won’t appear.
“Riiiight…. Well, in any case - you two should get going before another one appears.”
“What about you?” the question was asked by Adam, “I think I’ll stick around and see what’s wrong with this place,” Uriel replied.
“Seriously? We can’t leave you-”,
“What I’m saying is, you’ll die before you’ll prove useful.” he reiterated,
“Well, you heard the cat - let’s get going.”,
“Alright - if you’re absolutely sure then-”
“I’m sure. I’ll be out in twenty minutes or less.” Uriel said smugly before gesturing for us to leave already.
We did as instructed and despite my not-so-subtle hints to leave, Adam insisted we wait outside the entrance.
Adam sat down on the grass, pressing his back against the walls of the entrance - which double as the city walls.
He looked upset with something, I just couldn’t figure out why.
Adam began tapping the ground with the tip of his foot, slowly and rhythmically at first - soon his tapping devolved into a frantic thumbing.
“Adam, stop that before you collapse the fucking tunnel on him.”
I looked up confused before looking around seeing dust and crushed grass from where he molested the ground with his boot.
“Shit - sorry!” he said embarrassed before letting out a sigh.
“Are you feeling alright?” I’m no psychologist - or even just a socially qualified person, but it was clear that Adam was bothered by something.
“Yeah, I’m fine - I hate being this useless in a fight…” He sighed,
“...yeah - I know what you mean.”
“...I mean, I’m sure we could come in handy in a fight - we could distract the demons for Uriel”
“I guess…”
“Plus what if he runs out of mana?”
“What are you two talking about?”
We looked over, knowing well that it wasn’t Uriel, as a matter of fact, it was Lily - “What the hell are you doing here?” Adam demanded,
“I told you - if you didn’t want to help out - I was going to deal with the monsters myself,” she explained patting the quiver on her hip - it held arrows with golden tips which emitted a strong light.
“What are those?” I asked - I’m still not sure what element Uriel’s magic is made from - whenever I try to make light it’s pure white.
A solid twenty minutes passed with no response - “That’s it, I’m going inside!” Adam exclaimed, I gaze down to the tormented soil, each individual drain of soil decimated under the fury of Adam’s impatient foot tapping.
“I’ll come too!” Lily added taking one of the arrows from the quiver, Adam didn’t really respond to her - “Good luck guys!” I replied to both.
Adam spun around on his heel before starting to walk towards the entrance, then he stopped and turned back - “Wait you’re not coming?”
“I mean, I’m low on mana as it is - and low on ammo too…” I explained.
“I guess you’re right…”
“Yeah - we can’t bring a child into the monster-filled sewers.” Lily agreed.
“I’m not a child. Also - I’ll have you know it’s a bit late for your parenting, I’ve almost gotten myself killed there today already.”
“Tsk…” she turned away for a second - what’s her problem?
“In any case - the stalker and I will go get Uriel back, If we’re not back in ten minutes-”
I cut him off “It’s alright - I’ll make sure to remember you guys fondly.”
“I was actually hoping you’d call for backup.”
“Nah - I can manage remembering you guys alone.”
Adam let out a reluctant smile accompanied by a sigh and went into the cave, summoning the claw weapons from seemingly thin air again.
Lily followed, crossbow ready.
“Voice 1 : Shouldn’t you go with them?”
“Voice 2 : Look - if you want to get yourself killed, go ahead!”
“Voice 1 : …”
“Voice 2 : Alright - maybe you shouldn’t have the ability to get yourself killed again.”
“Voice 1 : It’s all that fucking cat’s fault…”
“Voice 2 : I know, right? We could have killed ourselves until we reincarnate as monarchs again.”
“Voice 3 : What do you guys mean!? You wanted an out all this time, you got one!”
“Voice 1 : I guess…”
“Voice 3 : Remember - that bastard promised a way out - so you better keep his promise!”
“Voice 2 : Didn’t he say he was some angel or something?”
“Voice 1 : I don’t know - wasn’t listening…”
“Voice 3 : Well - that would imply, he has to be all honest and stuff!”
“Voice 1 : Yeah - so as long as he doesn’t die or something like that, we’re good!“
“Voice 2 : Yeah! Maybe he can give us the secret early!“
“Voice 1 : …I dunno… I don’t really want to rush things…“
“Voice 3 : Don’t tell me you want to live?!“
“Voice 1 : NO! That’s not it! I’m just-“
“Voice 4 : He’s saying Uriel might cancel the deal if we ask now!“
“Voice 2 : Would he?“
“Voice 1 : Thanks 4“
“Voice 4 : I gotcha, fam“
“Voice 3 : Alright - for now we wait…“
“Voice 2 : By the way… isn’t Uriel like… dying in the tunnel?“
“Voice 1,3,4,5 : WHAT?!“
“Voice 2 : Weren’t you guys paying attention!?“
“Voice 3 : IT’S TUESDAY - IT’S YOUR TURN TO EXIST!“
“Voice 2 : That’s not how it works and you know it…“
“Voice 1 : Wait, no - he’s in that tunnel.“
“Voice 2,3,4 : At worst he’s dying - no dead.“
“Voice 3 : Fuck… all in favour of going and saving cat say aye!“
“...”
“Voice 4 : All in favour of protecting our only way out say aye!”
“Voice 1,2,3,4,5 : AYE!”
“Voice 3 : Thanks 4”
“Voice 4 : Any time, Fam”
“Fuck, I’m hearing the voices again…” I think to myself feeling the sudden urge to go help out my way out - I mean cat…
Meanwhile, deeper inside of the tunnel stood Issac, he was sitting in the wooden chair he dragged out from outside peering into the darkness of the tunnel, he knew the creatures were staring at him, but judging by their inaction they weren’t commanded to disobey him yet.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“General.” the same voice as from before came, the cloaked figure appeared.
Issac didn’t even bother to turn around.
“What’s up?…” Issac asked, his expression unchanged.
“If you don’t act - I will…it’s in your interest to cooperate,” she said.
“And why is that?” Adam asked turning around in his chair, his eyes shot open when he saw that the hooded figure was accompanied by the Lieutenant General, Catherine.
“Why are you here?!” Issac demanded, not noticing the fact that her expression was blank, she held a blade to her throat.
Issac evaluated the situation for a second, “What did you do to her?” Issac demanded.
“Actually, we haven’t done anything. The Lieutenant General got possessed by one of the lost souls, it seems she lost the battle for her body…” A sickly chuckle came from underneath the hood of the cloaked figure.
“For some reason, she was going around the big lab you guys have deeper into the tunnels - she was in search of someone following the “earthquake” earlier” - she was referring to the giant demon from before.
Issac let out a defeated sigh, “It would seem that you got me.” he said.
“Indeed, now - will you do your job?” The cloaked figure asked.
Issac didn’t say anything for a while…
“Fine…” He said, looking over to the Lieutenant General who seemingly returned to her senses, dropping the blade and falling to the floor, pushing back against the wall.
“W-what happened?! What did I do?!” The Lieutenant General was clearly in a state of confusion.
“As your first task you will take care of some intruders…” the cloaked figure pointed over to the dark tunnel - “We’re not sure who they are - it’s on powerful soul followed by two average souls - and in the distance there is a bit of an anomaly trying to catch-up to the two in-front.” She explained.
The hooded figure leaned in towards the Lieutenant General, whispering something into her ear before back away.
“I just made it so if you come back without having disposed of those intruders, she’ll slit her throat.” She added tossing the blade towards the Lieutenant General before she turned into a black mist disappearing quickly, saying a quick “Bye!~” before completely disappearing.
“Well, …it appears we’re in a bit of trouble…oh well.” Issac took out a small vial of red liquid from his pocket. “Drink it, it’s a health potion and stay here,” Issac commanded.
“But what are-” Catherine’s question was shot down by Issac “That was an order,” he said, as he began heading into the dark abyss of the tunnel, the beasts seemingly ignoring him.
Footsteps rushed towards him, it was three people, a blue-haired man with round glasses and metal claw weapons, a woman with a crossbow, an elegant looking man wearing a black suit and coat with a grey beard and moustache and a child with…a gun?…
“I didn’t literally mean twenty minutes!” Uriel sighed,
“Well - how were we supposed to know.”
“And why is he here?” Uriel asked looking towards me.
“I CANNOT LET MY TICKET DIE!”
“...alright.”
“Still - those arrows of your work wonders on the demons!” Uriel said turning towards Lily.
“Thanks - I had to work overtime to afford these.”
“Oh - where do you work?”
Adam put a hand on his shoulder - “You’re too innocent to know that.”
“She’s an assassin,” I explained.
Uriel’s expression shifted to a more awkward one, “Oh… I see… so a paid killer…”
“I know - truly despicable scum.“ Adam said turning towards Lily with a disappointed expression - disregarding the dozens of people I personally saw him kill earlier this week.
“Why’d you tell him? Now they’re judging me!”
“First of all, Adam always judges you - second of all - think about how it sounds when Adam describes your job as ‘not for innocent people’ ”
Lily thought about it for a second before turning red with embarrassment and turning towards Adam and Uriel - this time it was her with the expression of disappointment - that said Adam was sniggering to himself.
“Yo,” Issac said looking at the group, were they adventurers or something?
“It’s dangerous in here! You should get out of here before the monsters here tear you apart!” Uriel advised.
Issac laughed a little.
“How very compassionate of you, please reconsider this situation though,” Issac suggested.
Uriel was silent while he was thinking about it.
“He’s on their side,” Adam exclaimed.
“Nonsense, why would a human with a clear soul ally with the fel souls?!” Uriel demanded.
“I’m very sorry about all this, the monsters here are my doing,” Issac explained.
“What?! So then you’re the one who’s stopping all the plants from growing?!” Adam demanded.
“Yeah, Adam’s drug-flowers are dying because of you!” I added.
Issac raised an eyebrow, “Y’know I’m still the general of the army… you shouldn’t be telling me this…” Issac said with a casual sigh sighed.
“Answer the question!” Uriel demanded.
Issac sighed, “No, I’m just an underling…y’know make monsters in return for not having the entire country wiped out…then still get the country wiped out - that kind of deal.” Issac explained.
“So you’re working for the bad guy…because you though the bad guy would honour your dead about him not being a bad guy to your county?” I asked hoping he’d realise his obvious mistake.
“In hindsight, maybe this could have been predicted. But hey. It’s too late now.” Issac shrugged,
“Regardless, sorry I couldn’t chat longer, I’ve been sent to kill you,” Issac explained.
“Fine by me!” Adam replied as he placed the two claw fists in front of his face, much like you would with boxing gloves.
Issac charged in first, he was fast and like a bolt of lightning, he pierced Adam’s arm.
It became very clear to them that he was far more experienced than them…well…maybe except Uriel, but he had to keep the light spell going.
To their left was a large drop to where presumably water would be, instead of water there was mud and several writhing monstrosities hidden in the darkness.
“Cat, I can cast the light spell if you go fight him!” I suggested,
Uriel nodded and released the light spell bathing us all in darkness for a moment.
I created a massive halo of light, where the halo was a three-layer magic circle of pure yellow light, it filled the entire tunnel with a warm light like that of the sun, that said with my mana or whatever the casting limit is called - I’d only have enough to cast that spell for ten minutes max… if I add the three mana shots I have left, I could keep going for about twenty…
“What a capable magic user you have there,” Issac said.
“Yeah, they can come up with spells on the spot it’s great!” Adam exclaimed as he released several jabs towards Issac, each one blocked by his blades, Issac blocked his attack with one blade and used the other one to stab his leg.
Adam let out a yelp of pain.
“FUCK” he exclaimed.
Uriel placed a palm on Adam’s back, “Heal” the words echoed in the cave as Adam was enveloped in a bright light stopping all pain and removing any wounds.
“Alright, now you may fight me,” Uriel said cracking his knuckles as he stepped in front of Adam.
“Alright, no probs,” Issac said with a shrug.
In an instant a solid white chain shot out from Uriel’s sleeve, it moved towards Issac who slashed it causing it to turn to a cloud of pale white dust after shattering into bits which filled the air.
“Hmph…nice trick, but I bet it costs a lot of mana.” Issac laughed.
“What gives you that idea?” Uriel asked with a smirk.
“The fact you’re laying on the floor right now,” Issac replied.
“Oh…right…didn’t notice…” Uriel replied.
But I have, I loaded a mana shot into my gun a snot it towards Uriel, the bullet was about to strike him when Issac cut it mid-air with his rapier.
“ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?!” I cried.
“I hope so,” Issac replied, he was looking at Adam who stood up now.
“Fairy Fire!” Adam commanded as a blue blaze from the two-circle magic circle under Issac, the flames seemingly did no damage to him.
”Yeah…I wouldn’t rely on this kind of magic against me, these uniforms are created courtesy of the wizard’s court and are resistant to all harmful magic…” Issac explained.
Adam stood up for another hit, he tried to lunge for his middle torso only to be hit right to the side of his neck by the metal handle of the rapier, one on each side. Adam fell to the floor getting minor burn wounds from the fairy fire…
“So, you say your friend can alter the function of spells…?” Issac asked.
The fire disappeared leaving behind a cloud of light dust in the air.
I loaded a pain and healing bullet in that order into the gun, I shot the pain one towards Issac causing him to block it again with his sword, allowing me to shoot the healing one towards Adam.
Adam stood up and planted a solid hit to the man’s back with his weapon, however, the metal blades simply slid off as if Adam was attacking a chunk of steel.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT UNIFORM MADE OUT OF?!” Adam demanded jumping back to make some distance between them.
“Hell if I know, I leave that stuff up to the wizard’s court nerds…” Issac shrugged before pointing his rapier at Adam once again.
“And no…he can make new ones on the spot…” Adam spoke through exhausted gasps, Adam was no amateur when it came to fighting but this man was a monster.
Adam looked to me and Uriel who was laying passed out on the ground.
“You two get the hell out of here… I’ll try to buy you some time.” Adam said defeated.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that, if they try I’ll be forced to slash them from behind,” Issac replied.
“Damn…so you won’t even let me die in a cool way?” Adam scoffed.
“Oh, shut up, as if I’d let you feel all high and mighty before death,” I replied.
Uriel was seemingly knocked out, honestly, I thought he’d be stronger, though his healing was pretty strong.
“You there, what’s your name?” Issac asked looking at me.
“Why does everybody keep asking me that? I don’t have one!” I replied somewhat pissed off.
“Oh, is it a slave or something?” Issac asked with a disgusted expression on his face while looking at Adam.
“Nope, he just had a hard time picking one is all,” Adam replied, propping himself against the wet, slimy wall with his claws.
“...so did his parents never name him or something? How cruel.” Issac asked.
“No…he just started existing at eight,” Adam explained.
“Wait…what do you mean?!” Issac demanded, he was seriously confused by this.
“You wouldn’t understand…” Adam replied.
“...wait…are you from another world by chance?…” he asked.
The question shook everyone, except Uriel who was out cold.
“...you mean…you’re from earth too?” I asked.
“Heh…so you are from earth…” Issac’s face shifted to a sorry attempt at a smile.
“Damn, for the first time… I finally met someone from earth…and now I have to kill them…” Issac said, his voice shaky if he wasn’t the man he was he might have cried.
“You don’t have to kill us!” Adam cried.
“I’m sorry, the truth is I have no choice because it’s not my life that’s on the line here,” Issac said.
“What do you-” I was interrupted by Adam, “I get it… you were told to kill us, otherwise, someone dies.” Adam asked.
Issac nodded.
“I see… in that case… there is no point trying to convince you…” Adam said with a sigh.
“Yeah…” Issac replied sadly.
“Get ready to die,” Issac added before pointing his blade towards Adam again.
The fight continued, for every decent punch Adam would be skewered by Issac’s blade,
“Wind Fist!” Adam said as a massive chunk of what looked like solid, glowing air rushed towards Issac from the three-circle magic circle from in front of Adam, it knocked him back at first but shattered soon after.
While Issac was getting up Uriel cast another spell, “Radiance!” a pinkish-yellow light poured down on Issac - as if the sun itself became a liquid - it came from what looked like a cylinder of magic circles, they radiated a pale white light.
“I told you, magic will have no effect on me!” Issac said calmly taking a second to feel the texture of the liquid light pouring over his face.
“Apollo’s blessing!” Uriel said as a bright yellow light began radiating from Adam’s boots, there were small yellow circles on the soles of each shoe. “It’s a speed boost!” Uriel explained.
“Thanks!” Adam made sure to make use of every second he could, he rushed towards Issac, so fast that only a blur remained of the light from the boots, leaving a trail of where he moved in the tunnel.
Like a lightning bolt, Adam slashed Issac with his claws.
“So it looks like it is possible to hurt you!” Adam laughed as he jumped back, Issac was too slow to cut him down.
To us the scene looked as if Issac was desperately looking around for his attacked always getting stabbed in either the side of his back, his uniform and the ground below them became stained with blood, Adam’s impossibly fast movements battered Issac for every side.
“I’m low on mana, I’ll take over the lighting for now,” Uriel said casting his light spell allowing me to join into the fight.
With one swift movement, Issac was able to catch Adam by the foot allowing him to plunge his rapier directly into the flesh of his leg and cut the muscles leaving his leg limp.
I loaded a heal spell into the gun, I aimed it at Adam and fired.
Issac tossed Adam aside and moved in place of Adam to take the hit healing himself back to full health.
During the entire fight Lily’s been shooting any demons that tried to reach for us from the holes - the arrows she fired incinerated them almost instantly - with every bolt she fired it was as if four to eight people she was paid to kill were fired off into the distance, she saw her net-worth fall with each bolt shot.
“FUCK!” I cursed in rage as I decided to switch to offensive magic.
“Ice Block,” I said as a massive chunk of ice appeared before me rising from the three magic circles located next to each other, they were a pale-blue colour.
“I told you, magic can’t hurt me!” Issac said in a bored tone.
“Maybe magic can’t but the physical weight of the massive boulder of ice should!” I called back while firing the block of ice and creating several other ones, I created purple circles which applied mass amounts of kinetic force to the ice.
Issac was able to keep the barrage of ice projectiles at bay with the swift movements of his rapier, shattering the ice into dozens of pieces with each slash.
“Why don’t I try out some magic?!” Issac asked, jumping out of the way of the ice projectiles and leaping behind Adam who’s Apollo’s blessing has run out.
This caused me to cease my ice block barrage as I got prepared to improvise a shield spell.
“Black lightning,” he said causing an arch of lightning to shoot from his fingertips, it was a black colour with a crimson glow, he aimed his finger-gun, at the end of his index finger was a tiny black magic circle. He pointed at Adam and with a swift snap of the finger on his other hand, the black lightning shot straight through Adam and arched on the wet floor for a split second before disappearing.
Adam jumped back, covering the place where the lightning his time with his hands and he fell to the ground with a gasp.
“...Ahhaaaactually that didn’t hurt at all…man your magic is weak!” Adam said patting his torso which he was pleasantly surprised was still there.
“Weird, usually none of you should be left standing…I guess it’s the light magic.” Issac shrugged.
If the spell was that powerful, I needed to learn it, so I essentially stole Issac’s spell but changed the colour so it’d work in this situation.
“Regular Colour Lightning!” I commanded as the same arching lightning appeared on my fingertips, I pointed the finger-gun at Issac and snapped my fingers causing a long bolt of lightning to shoot straight towards Issac, the recoil was insane and my air my was off causing Issac to only loose one leg and one arm in the process.
He fell to the floor with a loud thump…
“Damn…that must have been one hell of a spell to get through the anti-magic armour…” Issac sighed.
“Yeah, you still have a chance to surrender, I can probably heal that whole no arm no leg thing,” I replied.
“Heh, the more you say that the worse I feel for having to kill you…” Issac said using his rapier as a walking stick.
I looked down to Adam, “Dude, are you alright?” I asked.
“Yeah…that was one awesome spell! You have got to teach me that shit when we get back home!” he laughed standing up but failing horribly.
“BOOST!” Issac’s words caught Adam off-guard as evident by Issac being able to stab Adam through the torso once more.
I looked into my ammo pouch, “I’m out of healing bullets!” I yelled out loading four flame bullets into my revolver.
Adam kicked Issac away causing Issac to fall over and his rapier to fall down into the pit.
“We disarmed him!” I said excitedly, I looked over to Adam only to realise that he too was laying on the floor.
“Looks like you guys really managed to screw me over…” Issac said seemingly accepting his defeat.
“Heal Adam!” Uriel commanded.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you.” I replied not taking my eyes off Issac I moved over to Adam and placed one hand on his torso, “Heal” I said as a lime-green magic circle appeared - light filled the inside of Adam’s torso causing him to seemingly regain consciousness with a gasp, I breath a sigh of relief and turned to Issac.
I moved closer to Issac, “So…are you going to give up?” I asked.
“...I can’t…the least I can do I die trying…” Issac replied with a defeated smile on his face.
“So once we kill you the person will die?” I asked.
“Most likely, however, if I was to let you live - she would certainly die,” Issac explained.
“So your friend is being held, hostage?” I asked.
“She’s possessed if I come back without having killed you she’ll slit her throat,” Issac explained, stumbling back to his feet.
“So, hypothetically…if we made it to her before she kills herself…I could un-posses her?” I asked.
Issac stood with one hand against the wall, the wounds on his arm and leg stumps were charred so he wasn’t losing blood.
“If you could do something like that…then yes…but I can’t take that risk!” Issac replied.
“In that case…let’s fight! Let’s fight to the death!” I exclaimed,
“That’s the plan…” Issac replied.
“I’ll heal you up first though,” I explained.
“You’ll what? Why?” Issac asked.
“Well, we will be fighting, it would suck if you lost mobility because of your missing limbs,” I replied.
I walked over to Issac and cast a healing spell, after ten or so seconds of uninterrupted healing his leg and arm returned.
“Quite the impressive healing spell you have there…” he commented.
I took out my dagger, “Alright, let’s fight!” I exclaimed.
“What the hell are you doing?! You don’t stand a chance against him!” Uriel called out.
Adam stood up but kept his distance.
This was my chance, I cast “Boost!” based on how it looked, it just pushed the person forward a few meters or up to a solid target.
I shot past Issac launching myself ten meters forward.
Issac turned around to face, he ran towards me and I boosted four meters in the opposite direction, I turned around to see him, he rushed towards me again and I boosted another ten meters forward.
“Aren’t you going to attack?” Issac asked.
“Nope, what’s the point with my strength?” I asked.
We repeated the boost routine a few more times, ten forward four back, rinse and repeat.
Adam and Uriel were slowly following us, eventually, I was finally able to see the person standing at the end of the tunnel whom I presumed to be the possessed person.
I boosted towards them and placed a palm on their forehead, she looked like she was in her early twenties to late teens, she wore the same uniform as Issac, she was seemingly awake and just standing in the corner of the tunnel, her eyes were completely blank - like how you can tell plastic eyes apart from real ones in a matter of seconds.
This was not the ideal setting but I had to get casting,
I needed to think of a mechanism to get this to work, and I had to think of one on the spot - I created twenty-three magic, going from head to toe, each one was a thin fragile white circle, soon enough I saw one shatter - when Issac used the black lighting it was weakened by the light spell, if I make a weak enough light spell it will break due to the presence of the dark soul.
I increased the power of the surrounding two circles immensely, to the point that I made the rest disappear, I made the two circles close in like a vice until I saw the light face as a smoky white orb started to appear at various points on the girl’s torso.
I continued tightening the circles, the fact I wasn’t stabbed yet was proof that Issac either understood or now understands my plan.
I squeeze the two circles into one, and move them out, showing a flattened greenish-black smoke trapped between the two circles.
The two circles shattered, letting the ball of smoke bounce away into the darkness.
“Shit, it got away!” I exclaimed before being crushed by the now unconscious body of the passed out Lieutenant General.
“Somebody get her off!” I cried out for help trying to crawl away.
Issac only just caught up to me taking the Lieutenant General off me and putting her aside.
“That was one hell of a risky game you played…” Issac said.
“yeah, well I hoped you ran out of mana by now and couldn’t boost…” I replied catching a breath of air.
Issac extended his arm to help me off the ground, to which I gladly accepted the helping hand.
“Well…what now?” I asked.
“It’s safe to say this place isn’t safe for me or the Lieutenant General…” Issac replied - the bored look returned to his face.
“Nameless child, can I ask you a favour?” Issac asked.
“Sure,” I replied.
“It’s two favours actually, first…want you to get the Lieutenant General away from this place, at least for a little bit.” Issac said.
“Well I’ll need to contact my home-owner,” I pointed back at Adam, “But I think we got it covered.”
“Secondly I’d like you to hold off on telling her that I’m alive,” Issac said, he sounded hesitant.
“Why?” I asked.
“Now that I’m free to act how I want, I no longer wish to side with the enemy. I’m going to go take them out or at the very least do some damage, I know the Lieutenant General well, she’d try to find me and die trying to go with me.” Issac explained.
“...So you’re now against the demons?“ I asked.
“Demons are the least of our concerns I’m afraid…but yes.” Issac replied.
“Fine, but you’re taking responsibility for her being pissed about lying to her,” I warned him sarcastically.
“Seriously…you people are weird as hell…sorry for cutting all of you up earlier…” Issac said apologetically.
“Don’t worry about it, we would have done a lot worse if it was us in your situation,” Adam replied casually, although he seemed pretty salty about being stabbed.
And so Issac left the tunnels through a different stairwell than us without much of a goodbye.
We headed out of the tunnels, keeping the light spell going so as to keep the demons at bay, agreeing to take the Lieutenant General back to our home for now.
“I’ve been thinking... so what kind of death are we going to make up for Issac?” I asked.
“How about he tripped and fell onto his sword?…because he didn’t want to kill us…or something?… Like he did on purpose.” Adam suggested.
“It’ll do, it sounds pretty noble actually…” Uriel said scratching his beard.
“So what are we going to do about those monsters or demons or whatever?” I asked.
“Yeah, …we should probably deal with them…” Adam sighed.
“Why not just bust the entire tunnel open so they fry in the sun?” I asked.
“I guess that could work!” Uriel exclaimed.
“There is a high risk of…y’know…collapsing the entire city in the process.” Adam pointed out.
“True but we would defeat an army of monsters trying to destroy said city.” I pointed out.
“No…we really should consider the consequences of this…we should evacuate the city…” Uriel pointed out.
“...ah yes let’s just pop over and go like…” Adam cleared his throat and put on a higher-pitched voice “GeT oUt oF ThE CiTy, WeRe AbOuT To Blow It tHe FuCk Up!”
“...no need to be rude.” Uriel shrugged.
“He has a point though, nobody would listen to us nobodies.” I pointed out.
“We’ll think of something…” Adam sighed.
Adam was carrying the Lieutenant General over his shoulder, she was pretty heavy for her size, and Adam was still pretty exhausted.
“Wait, let’s use the teleport rings!” Adam suggested, the relief on his face was the definition of bliss.
Lily was walking a few meters ahead of us with her head hung low.
“Sure, but didn’t we leave them at home?” I asked.
As Adam desperately looked through his pockets, his expression became the definition of terror, and unspeakable horror that one could never comprehend, the very act of betrayal, losing hope and existential dread seen nowhere in nature and beyond.
“It’s alright… we’re not too very far away.” I said patting him on the shoulder.
“You’re lucky you look like a kid or I’d drop kick you right now…” Adam complained.
“Relax, relax, I can carry her.” Uriel offered to pick the unconscious girl over his shoulder and carrying her a decent ten meters before putting her down and demanding a break.
Lily was definitely best suited to walking - she didn’t seem too tried after the whole ordeal - on the other hand, she was still grieving, holding an empty coin pouch.
“That’s what I get for trying to show of…” she though to herself thinking the population of this country is about to suffer greatly from her trying to get the money back
In the end, Adam had to carry her back up the mountain, while Uriel just looked in embarrassment.
When we made it home Adam was first in the door where he fell flat onto the wooden floor, using his leftover strength to toss the Lieutenant General onto the couch.
Lily looked around, seeing me and Uriel crawling our way up the hill on all fours.
“I WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR LONG JOURNEYS!” I cried.
“Shut up… weakling…” Uriel replied he was keeping up with me for a good while until he passed out a few meters away from the door.