-Chapter Four-

The Trinity - Part One

“So… do I really have to come along?” Taylor asked skeptically, following after Mercy’s footsteps softly crunching beneath the snow.

“Mmhmm,” she hummed. “Right now, there are quite a few reasons for you to stick with me. One of them being, if you leave, he’ll have to pick between one of us to go after. And if he goes after you while we’re apart, then…” she stopped, turned her head to him and ran her finger along her neck like a knife. “You’ll meet a horrific fate.”

“…I see…” Taylor laughed nervously at the menacing gesture.

“Mmhmm. So you gotta stay near me, so I can protect you.”

“Yeah… god, I’ve never felt more useless in my life,” he mumbled.

“Hmm…” Mercy glanced at him. “You look athletic. Do you prefer to do the protecting rather than the other way around?” she asked.

“Yeah… I do sports but I’m no ‘big man in the room’, or anything. I just don’t like relying on others, or being a burden on others. That’s all.”

“Well… for what it’s worth, you’re able to cast Magic now, so maybe you won’t completely be dead weight?” she tried to assure him as the two traversed across the moon-lit town.

“Wait, me?” Taylor repeated. “I can cast Magic, did you just say?”

“Some of it, at the very least,” she nodded, falling quiet again without saying more.

“Why?” he asked.

She remained quiet for some time before she simply muttered, “it’s complicated.”

Taylor felt he shouldn’t push any further into the topic, because Mercy seemed uncomfortable.

“How do I cast Magic, exactly?” he decided to ask instead.

“There’s not really any time to teach you,” she answered, disappointing him. “We’ve arrived. And he’ll be here soon.” She turned to him and gave him an adamant gaze, locking his attention onto her. “If you have some natural affinity, you might be able to connect mid-battle and figure something out. But if not, don’t worry about it. Just make sure to let me cast my barrier spells on you.”

“Uhh… ok…” Taylor answered nervously.

“Save your questions for after this,” Mercy nodded to him, as they came to an empty park relatively remote from any other urban areas.

Mercy immediately began to chant and start laying down formations, no longer paying her companion any attention.

“Hmm…” Taylor, unoccupied, kicked a pebble away. “You say I can use Magic, but I really don’t know how,” he mumbled.

“There’s just no time to teach you how. Tonight, just try not to get killed. That’ll be enough,” she said, rising to her full height.

“He’s here.”

Taylor watched her facial expression turn to that of a stone-hard fighter’s, and her gaze turn cold and icy.

With a restless swallow at the sudden change in atmosphere, Taylor scanned the large stretch of grass before them, which seemed to disappear endlessly into the vast night.

“Do you see it?” Taylor asked Mercy quickly, who shook her head.

“I can’t see him.”

Not another moment passed until he suddenly felt a soul-crushing pressure grip him. It was like a force of oppression, like a gigantic hand had descended from the skies and had slammed down onto his entire body. It was none other than pure dominion and fear, coming from one source.

Taylor’s breath couldn’t even escape his throat as his eyes wandered across the grass to where the pressure was coming from.

Two small, single dots of dark purple glowed back at him in the darkness with menace, casting ice into his soul and Taylor’s mind began to scramble.

Run? Fight? Attack? Flight?

In his mind, he imagined each scenario but they all ended in death.

Unable to decide what to do, Taylor could only remain completely still as it suddenly flashed at him, faster than any normal person could react.

Would his Magic kick in?

He willed as hard as he could for some sort of supernatural power to intervene and save him, and waved his hand but as he should’ve expected, there was nothing.

Oh shit, Taylor thought as he felt his head go flying, dislodged from his shoulders.

But instead, it never reached him.

Halfway across the field, the shadow had stepped on a purple mine of some sort, effectively locking it to that spot.

Taylor immediately gasped for breath, feeling light headed and almost falling to his knees from the suffocating pressure.

He tried to see what Mercy was doing, but as he expected, she was completely unfazed, flanking around the park with her wand out and conjuring multiple black bolts.

She immediately shot multiple of the large black spikes out at the enemy, but it saw her attack coming and suddenly multiplied, splitting into two of itself.

One was struck by Mercy’s bolts, and melted away, but now the other had escaped the trap on the grass, and was trying to go for Taylor again.

“Why does it keep coming for me?”

Taylor flinched and looked away, shutting his eyes out of instinct of fear as it charged him down, but he was saved by Mercy again as it rammed head first into a transparent barrier.

There was a deafening sound like thunder as it collided with the barrier and was sent bouncing back across the grass.

That’s right. If it wants him, it has to get through Mercy first.

Mercy wore a confident smile as the black shadow rose back to its feet and turned to face her instead.

Taylor watched onward in a mixture of awe and shock as it flashed at her, and Mercy also engaged it.

The two danced around the park in a flurry of sparks flying and different lights clashing, faster than his eyes could follow.

Despite that, Taylor could still pick up some details in certain moments.

The shadow had the upper hand, casting various large destructive spells that left the park decimated.

Meanwhile, Mercy had only been using conservative Magic that appears in the form of small walls, to fend off the shadow’s attacks. But she wasn’t ever counter-attacking.

If this continues, she’ll eventually lose, like the spear piercing the shield.

What was she planning?

Taylor tried to watch on to see, but instead saw on her face that she was struggling.

It was too strong for her.

She was losing.

As Taylor realised this, he felt panic grip his being. What fate would befall them, if they were to lose out to their opponent?

He absolutely can’t let her die. At any cost.

Things went from bad to worse as Taylor saw the shadow close in on Mercy. She put up a shield to fend it off but one fierce and fast slash from the shadow’s purple claws sent her yellow barrier of light shattering into fragments like glass.

The recoil from the blow sent Mercy with a squeal sprawling into a roll across the soil. She recovered by rolling onto her feet with agility, and was ready to dodge again when Taylor saw it had already appeared behind her. Completely unable to react in time, Mercy could only look up as the sharp claws descended down onto her.

This was it. She was about to die.

There was something odd Taylor had been feeling ever since the battle had begun. One thing was the fear Taylor had felt. He hadn’t felt that sort of feeling at all when they got caught up with the shadow earlier. And the other odd thing was the lights. Taylor couldn’t see it earlier in the day, but right now, he could see string-like threads all around him.

It was like he had been attuned, or exposed to something he was ignorant of before.

The monster had multiple strings running out of its body and into the space around it. Each attack the shadow cast out, a thread would be connected to it.

Each counter Mercy gave back at it would have a thread attaching it to her.

Even the traps from the ground had strings running out of them and connecting to Mercy.

But most of all, both Taylor and her had dozens of threads connecting them together.

Taylor’s eyes widened as the shadow raised it’s hand and slashed down at Mercy, who was unable to avoid it in time. At the sight of what was transpiring, Taylor felt an energy rapidly expand from within him.

It first started out like a small ball of warmth in his abdomen, but then it rapidly spread across his entire body.

Like a liquid running through his bloodstreams, he felt each of his insides warm up comfortably.

Taylor could feel strength surging through his body, and the world suddenly lit up around him.

Tornados of flashing light waltzed through the glowing, quaking and humming air around him, countless pillars stood erected from the ground, scraping the sky which had turned into an ocean of purple, blue and red.

Taylor felt like his body was so light, that he could go anywhere at this moment. He felt so strong, he could defeat anything.

This… must be Mana.

Mercy was sent sprawling when her shield was broken through brute force. She had been hoping it wouldn’t be this hard, but as she feared, it was virtually impossible to beat a Magician who could use offensive Magic while she was restricted by the World Binds, and also had to protect someone.

Thankfully, all she had to do was stall for time. Just drag the fight out, and they win.

After Mercy recovered onto her feet, she quickly scanned the grass before her, ready to dodge away but saw no sign of it.

Uh oh… she realised too late it was behind her, and as she turned her head over her shoulder, she only saw purple claws rushing toward her neck.

It’s over… she realised, unable to move in time.

This was her death.

Thinking it was her final moment, Mercy could not resist. In the background of all the noise, the strong wind blowing and cars in the distance, she heard Taylor’s voice scream out.

I’m sorry, Taylor, she thought. I’m sorry, everyone else. Just as a tear was falling down from her eye, there was a sudden ‘boof’ next to her ear. A gush of force like wind pushed out from behind her back, pushing her into a roll across the grass and she felt Mana in the air erupt like a vacuum.

She quickly looked up after coming to a stop, to spot Taylor floating in the air a few metres away from the shadow, blocking her from it.

In his hand shone a glowing dark blue book, connected to him through various silver chains.

It was about the size of a person’s palms, with one single sigil engraved into the cover - the symbol of the Invidia Atheneum.

Taylor’s eyes were glowing a deep dark blue, and he almost seemed to be in a trance as his low voice chanted various spells, and his hand was outstretched at the shadow.

Stolen story; please report.

Mercy watched on in disbelief that Taylor had somehow already awakened his thesis.

The shadow snarled and roared at him, angered that its prey had become the hunter instead.

Mercy pursed her lips, worried about what might transpire before her.

The shadow still had the advantage, as Taylor was also restricted by the World Bindings.

All he had to do though, was stall for time.

The shadow, with an ear-piercing screech, began to spam-cast wide AOE attack spells, appearing in the air in the form of multiple purple hammers that came crashing down on top of Taylor.

Mercy thought he was going to put up a barrier, but he did not. She didn’t realise it until the hammers were already on top of him, that he had no defence erected at all.

“No!” Mercy squealed with a jump as several loud bangs rang out across the park from the hammers hitting. “No! Why didn’t he guard??”

Pushing herself to her feet, Mercy ran toward Taylor and the Magic, feeling like she wanted to cry. How did this happen? It seemed like she could only make things worse and worse for Taylor, who was meant to only be a normal person. Until she came along.

She came to a stop a few metres away from the hammers, gazing at them dejectedly when she gasped, feeling that her connection with Taylor wasn’t severed.

The countless hammers stacked up on each other began to shake violently, and Mercy watched on in shock as they simply dissipated into sparkles, absorbed into Taylor’s outstretched palm.

The shadow also watched on in both confusion and outrage for a short moment, before it started shooting even more spells at them.

Mercy cried out at the sudden barrage, flinching away from the attack but Taylor simply absorbed those spells as well, protecting Mercy from any harm.

They continued to repeat over and over again, like rehearsing for a performance. There seemed to be no shortage to what the shadow could shoot at Taylor, and there seemed to be no shortage to what Taylor could steal.

With each spell he absorbed, Mercy felt their shared Mana pool grow. It was a terrifying power, befitting of a Successor, the power to covet other people’s Mana.

The shadow had grown tired from bursting attack spells at this point, stalling a cast, leaving an opening for Taylor to close in on it.

He flashed forward with a punch, but was unsuccessful when his opponent skillfully blocked with its glowing purple cloak. Though the shadow had exhausted it’s Mana, it’s skillset still lied in close-combat.

For a small while, the two dueled on equal footing, but then Taylor began to lose, gradually letting attacks through and slowing down in speed.

Mercy knew it couldn’t continue like this.

She sprinted and fished her wand out from the grass nearby before raising it at the shadow.

“Connect to the Ira Atheneum,” she casted, and purple energy began to surge forth around her. Within her, the Mana source had one strand connected to Taylor as he fought. Another connected to her, as she began to cast her spell.

“Ablation.”

Purple lightning cackled from the end of her wand and shot across the park at the shadow.

Mercy felt her Mana pull at the wand as she continued to let out bursts of lightning.

Each one was a debuff which hopefully will weaken and slow the shadow.

Distracted by her sudden flank, the shadow left its side unguarded for Taylor to swiftly land a heavy blow.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Taylor quickly transitioned into an offensive flurry, throwing punches with reinforcement Mana.

The shadow, even more outraged and frustrated by the turning tables, dashed backward and created some distance between them.

“Is it trying to escape? Shit! Taylor! Chase it down!” Mercy called as she saw it spin around and begin to take off away from the park.

Taylor still didn’t seem to be conscious, but he still heeded her words and began to pursue the shadow.

Mercy began to run after it as well, when she suddenly saw all the Mana particles in the air get sucked up into the shadow.

A grand-scale spell.

Mercy watched on in horror and urgency as one after another, rings conjured endlessly into a Magic circle rapidly expanding in the air behind the shadow.

Something of that scale could take out the entire city!

“Taylor, we have to stop that cast!” she shouted and looked to him.

Taylor let out a shout as he swung downard in the air in one long motion, summing a bolt of Mana which shot into the shadow. The impact only caused it to flinch and slightly weaken, Mercy saw before she noticed Taylor’s power fade away. Her Mana source returned to only her as Taylor softly floated down to the ground. Without any Mana flowing through him, he landed up against a tree completely unconscious.

“Shit…” Mercy turned her attention back to the shadow. Right. Why was she even relying him on the first place? He was only meant to be protected by her.

She took her wand and began to conjure an advanced binding spell, the only solution to deal with this large cast.

Each wave of her wand drew a glowing, thick golden line which latched onto the shadow, until there were dozens pulling the shadow towards the ground.

“Can I make it? Can I make it?” Mercy whispered under her breath as sweat dripped down her forehead while she cast her spell with surgical precision. She stole a glance at the shadow’s spell, to see it was almost finished. But so was she. Only one more thread remained before the binding was in effect.

The difference was a split second between the two of them.

Mercy was able to successfully bind the shadow before it completed its cast, though it was far too close for comfort.

The deciding factor was the scale of the spell the shadow had tried to cast. If it had gone with a spell that could be cast even a second faster, it would’ve won, even if the spell wouldn’t be as wide-scale. But because it chose to take more time, Mercy just managed to slip in with her spell.

Exhausted, she watched as the shadow’s spell was cancelled and it was pulled to the ground. Upon its spell breaking, the bindings Mercy cast also broke.

She wanted to fall backward onto her bottom and take a deep breath, but that was something she couldn’t afford as the shadow rose to it’s feet again, it’s purple eyes glaring at her. Even if it had no Mana, it could still kill her in close combat.

She glanced at Taylor, who was still unconscious on the tree trunk.

If she could at least protect him…

They had barely hung on until now, coming close to defeat but somehow overcoming it by a margin. They had exhausted it’s Mana, while their Mana pool still had some left over, thankfully.

If it tries to fight her head on, she might be able to get a leg-up over it by only using defence spells, stall the fight out until victory was theirs.

She swallowed apprehensively, tightening her grip around her wand, ready for the shadow’s attack at her.

To her surprise, it suddenly turned to attack Taylor’s unconscious body.

“No!” Mercy called out, sprinting forward to intercept the shadow.

As she drew close, it suddenly changed targets onto her and dashed forward.

Oh no! Mercy realised too late that it was baiting her in as it slashed at her with it’s outstretched claws.

She pulled back and tried to skirt around it, but only managed to do so partially as she felt a hot pain run up her arm.

She came dashing to a stop beside Taylor, clutching her singed, injured arm with her other hand.

Pain was gushing into her bloodstream, no doubt the assassin’s poison.

But if she stopped to detox it now, both her and Taylor will be dead.

The fight had gone on for so long, but it still wasn’t time yet, it seemed, Mercy thought with a groan of frustration.

She rose to her feet, letting go of her arm and raising her wand instead.

It was do or die. She felt nothing but conviction.

“I’m not going down without a fight,” she growled firmly.

The shadow rushed up on her and raised it’s lanky arms. A ball of purple gathered at it’s fists and then it brought them down again, on another attempt to crush Mercy and Taylor. Mercy let out a cry as she took the blow head on, conjuring a barrier in front of her.

The shadow didn’t get repelled from the impact but instead continued to push through, putting overwhelming pressure on Mercy’s barrier.

She was already exhausted, and could feel her strength draining even more as she held it back, gasping for air and crying out when she noticed a small, light blue circle appear beneath it on the ground.

Mercy’s eyes lit up with hope as the small circle suddenly reached out with arms and latched onto the shadow’s limbs before dragging the shadow down onto the dirt and Mercy felt the pressure lessen immediately.

Gasping for air, she took a step back but her legs had no strength, and she collapsed backward to the ground when a familiar touch caught her.

Still breathing harshly, Mercy turned her head to see Taylor had regained consciousness.

Standing beside him was another familiar face.

“Aira…” she breathed, feeling her muscles relax.

Aira firmly nodded to her, holding in her hand a staff with a purple ball attached to the end. With it, she quickly drew a portal at their feet.

There was a flash of light and when Mercy’s vision returned to her, she saw Aira had taken them to the top of a nearby hill, overlooking the park.

Mercy shuffled herself onto the grass beside Taylor, catching her breath and groaning. From where she sat, she could see the entire park had been lit up with a single, light blue magic circle.

Yet another familiar silhouette appeared in the dark night sky over the park and shot down at the ground. Upon the impact, the entire park blew up into blue sparks.

It was a high-class offensive spell, Castle of Eidolon. The shadow was out of Mana, and was most likely unable to defend against that spell. Mercy only hoped it hadn’t been killed in the attack.

Aira quickly begun to heal Mercy’s poisonous wound, and instantly completed the quick cast with her staff.

“Thanks, Aira,” Mercy smiled to her, and Aira returned a small one back.

“Are we safe?” Taylor asked, looking out at the Mana storm before him.

“Yeah, it’s all over,” Mercy told him.

“Wooo,” Taylor exhaled and leant back onto his elbows. “I can’t really remember what happened after I lost consciousness…”

“Well, you did a lot more than just protecting. You saved me, so well done. And thank you,” Mercy smiled at him with a sweet smile.

Taylor felt his heart skip a beat, and looked away in awkwardness when his eyes landed on a newcomer.

The blushing on his face and the small smile on his lips disappeared upon sighting the stranger.

She was a young girl who seemed to be Mercy’s age, and instead of holding a small stick in her hand, clutched a tall staff instead. She wore the same uniform, except she also had a purple hooded cloak sitting on her shoulders.

Her short and straight hair and her eyes were matching shades of light blue.

“Who are you?” her eyes met his and she quickly asked.

“Oh… I’m uhh, Taylor,” he put his hand out for them to shake, not sure if this was the correct action or not.

“That’s not what I meant,” she spoke without even looking at his hand, or taking it. Instead, her eyes continued to burrow into his.

There was a sudden flash of a shadow and Taylor exclaimed in surprise as another young man appeared.

He wore the same uniform as them, also appearing around the same age. His short black hair contrasted with his aggressive light blue eyes and tanned skin.

He immediately narrowed his eyes, and inspected Taylor from head to toe.

“Who’s the jackass?” he then asked Mercy, producing a pout from her.

“Please watch your language,” the blue haired girl quickly bonked him on the back of the head with her stick.

“Ow…” he rubbed the sore spot, with a sheepish chuckle. “Okay, okay, sorry honey,” he told the blue haired girl.

“Apologise to Mercy. And Taylor,” she simply said.

“Taylor huh…” the young man snorted, as Taylor watched in silence and apprehension.

“Listen Mercy, I’m sorry for using that kind of language,” he said very respectfully to Mercy, who sighed and nodded.

“It’s alright, Andrew.”

Taylor waited but didn’t get any apology from this so-called Andrew.

When he realised one wasn’t coming, Taylor chuckled to himself and leaned back into the tree.

It’s alright. What was he hoping for? These weird people will soon be on their way and he’ll be back to living his shitty life.

“My question still stands. Who is this guy?” Andrew gestured at Taylor.

“Uh…” Mercy fell quiet, unable to answer.

“I’m Taylor,” Taylor simply said.

“Nobody gives a fuck about your name,” Andrew answered.

“Well what the fuck you wanna know? I’m right here, why not try asking me?” Taylor shot back.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the other young man.

“You shut the fuck up if you don’t want your head to get sent flying. Mercy, who is the kid? You don’t speak, I’m gonna kill him,” Andrew turned his eyes back to Mercy. She seemed to be able to tell that he was dead serious, nervously gulping.

At Mercy’s worry, Taylor suddenly felt his confidence subside. If she was afraid… well, he was fucked for sure then.

“Before that, the assassin is more important. I have questions about him.” She quickly sprung to her feet.

“Ugh… ok…” Andrew sighed and waved to her. “Go on, then.”

“Did you capture him?” Mercy asked.

“No. Bit of a slippery fish. He escaped.”

“Sorry we were late, Mercy. It looks like you’ve gone through quite the hard time. We tried to come as soon as we got your message,” Aira butted in and Mercy smiled to her.

“It’s okay, Aira. I’m already very thankful.” Her gaze fell serious again as she turned her eyes back onto Andrew.

“Why didn’t the assassin have the World Bindings? His principle power seemed to feel similar to yours,” Mercy asked Andrew.

“I don’t know,” Andrew answered with a low growl, visibly frustrated. “I tried to probe him to see but he had some sort of auto-response ping that resonated with my one on exactly the same frequency and cancelled it out.”

“Almost like that shadow has exactly the same power as you…” Mercy wondered with a furrowed brow.

“Almost,” Andrew emphasised aggressively. “But that’s impossible, there’s no way someone else has exactly the same power as me.” It appeared the encounter must’ve unsettled him greatly.

“You said he slipped away?” Mercy asked, clenching her fists. “Damn it.”

“Something just doesn’t add up! Something about this is all weird!” Andrew ushered at her and Aira.

Taylor noticed a glint of fear, or perhaps insanity?

“I just know this is one of those ones… it’s starting…” Andrew whispered to himself, and Aira gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down, dear,” she tried to softly calm him.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Andrew continued. “There’s that guy who happens to be able to break the World Binds, and he happens to lead you here, where there happens to be a Successor? And that prick happens to slip away? Something’s going on here!” the young man stomped before pointing one finger at Taylor.

“So who the hell are you? You’re gonna tell me what you have to do with all of this.”

Taylor realised why Mercy was so concerned-looking earlier. The reason was because this guy, Andrew, was crazy enough to be a danger.

Taylor won’t have to fight him, will he?

Mercy quickly stepped in with her arms spread out to both her sides, blocking the two from each other.

With a dead serious gaze at Andrew, she said with a dead, cold tone,

“If you hurt him, I’ll kill you.”

Her words were serious.

“I don’t care if we’re both in the Trinity or not. I’m completely serious,” she told him menacingly.

Taylor took a step back, never seeing Mercy like this before. The atmosphere was suffocating him.

Andrew silently glared back at her directly, and Taylor felt worry that he would actually attack her.

Are they really in-fighting over him right now?