Noth, sporting a perplexed face, couldn't help but clear his throat as he felt like he’d been called out. He was far too preoccupied to realize how odd what Ren had just said was, and instead had his head filled with a myriad of questions about the strange things he’d created.
“Ah, yes, I suppose you’re right… I did make them… I think. But I don’t think I should be naming them until I know a bit more about them.”
The shadowy humanoid cat in front of him didn’t say a peep, it only kept its head down and waited patiently for its creator’s words. Seeing as it didn’t seem to show any kind of rejection, Noth’s mouth could no longer hold back his curiosity, and a deluge of questions began to spill out one after another. Some were cryptically answered, while other answers seemed to be unknown to the small shadow. Jean and Helt watched on in the distance with unsurprised stares; This wasn’t the first or second time that Noth’s inquisitiveness led to such a situation, and by now they’d grown quite used to, if not tired of, such a sight. It would have been far more surprising to them if the teen had just simply accepted the circumstances without a single question at all.
Of course, both of the children knew they were simply trying to distract themselves.
Neither of them wanted to be the first one to confront the possibly dangerous stranger who’d been standing behind them.
Everything was made all the more terrifying by the fact that said stranger looked exactly like their friend.
The two children had been repeatedly exchanging eye contact over the past few minutes of ‘watching’ Noth’s antics, and many unspoken words were exchanged. Jean and Helt were understandably close after having known each other so well for the past few years, but of course their silent conversation was made much easier by the fact that Helt could hear each of Jean’s thoughts. It took a while for them to come to an understanding and decide to confront this imposter at the same time, however when the two of them looked behind them, ‘Ren’ was gone.
***
“You can’t just do that!”
“...You’re right, but... But you scared my friends! What if they start to think I’m weird? What if they ask me what happened?!”
“You’re asking me to lie to my friends!”
“I know… I know that you’re shy.”
“What?! They wouldn’t do that, my friends are really nice and understanding!”
“Um… You’re right, but… But… They only did that to help Noth!”
“Oh, no, they… They’re very good friends, so maybe if they misunderstood… Oh no…”
“But then I’d just fix it! I wouldn’t let any of my friends hurt each other! I promise I’d protect you, just like you’d protect me!”
“Thank you! I try my best to be really really good! There’s a lot of mean people out there, so we gotta make sure to be nice, okay?”
“Of course I promise!”
<...Thank you, Ren. I’ll be needing you.>
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
***
When all was said and done, the shadows had done an excellent job of cleaning. Occasionally one would pass by someone in the hallway, and it was common to see their shadows stretch across a dirty surface, receding away a moment later to reveal that whatever it was was now completely clean. The amount that these shadows could stretch was actually surprisingly far, and even a whole wall could manage to be cleaned all at once. The sight was both beautiful and terrifying, and the implications were quite worrisome. Were he not the one who had given them this new life, Noth might have had thoughts of destroying such mystical and possibly powerful creatures before they decided to turn on him. However, since he’d forced such lives on them, he would never fault them for the powers that they now wielded, nor the possible horror that they could cause. Instead, he thought it best to keep them close and concealed, hidden away until he was sure of their natures and whether the world could handle such existences.
It wasn’t until the day after the whole event that Serris came back to Noth’s side. The excited teen informed her of everything she’d missed, and the always smiling angel simply kept calm and listened as if she was hearing a child repeat a story she’d already heard. As he approached the end of his tale, Noth noticed her patronizing attitude, and his eager and excited expression slowly turned into a pout.
“...You don’t find it at all amazing what I’ve done? You don’t look particularly shocked or interested.”
The angel’s hand came up to stroke the upset teen’s hair in a very loving and pacifying way. Noth couldn’t help but pull back the corner of his mouth, feeling a bit awkward at the childish way he was being treated. Ever since their previous discussion, he’d been working on acting a bit more intimately with Serris and at least lightly reciprocating her affections, so rather than swatting her hand away from his head, Noth firmly took hold of it with both of his hands, instead. A sweet smile grew on Serris’s face, and Noth managed to feel a bit less like he was being condescended to. However, the teen still wasn’t used to performing such physical displays like this, and couldn’t help the little flush that he could feel trying to spread on his face. He cleared his throat to try and cover it all up, and quickly began talking once again, rambling as if to distract himself from the uncomfortable feeling.
“Ahem… Yes, it was so strange when it was happening. The energy made me talk when I didn’t want to, and it poured out of my mouth like a haze. I always knew that I was getting this strange energy from the demons, and I didn’t really ever think too much about what that energy could do; I just knew that I could use it to supplement the powers that I get from you. In fact, that little bit of demon energy I’d gotten after the first few demons has kept me from breaking the bracelet quite a few times so far. But now, with all this energy I got from the archdemon, how it’s been blocking me from using your powers and even made me create those shadows… Honestly, I’m worried. I’m amazed, and I think it’s incredible, but I don’t want it to make me use it again. It’s already been over a month, and I don’t think I’ve made very much progress reconciling the two powers. I would rather have only your power back than accidentally use this power and make something dangerous. What if it makes me remake the demons? Or what if those shadows decide to stop being so docile one of these days? I don’t think I should have this big of a responsibility. I can barely handle the ones I already have…”
The longer the teen talked, the more his hands that were holding the angel’s hand hostage pulled in, only stopping once he was practically hugging her hand against him in insecurity. The angel’s eyes stayed trapped on the sight of it, her smile that was once loving and sweet slowly dissolving into something a bit more eerie. Noth’s slowly wandering gaze, distracted by his own pessimistic thoughts, was no longer paying any attention to what her face looked like, or else he might just have been struck dumb by a sense of fear. Serris, too, was quite distracted, although she had been listening closely to him all this time, so she didn’t manage to think about what she was replying with before it left her mouth.
“...What?”
Noth looked up at the words that didn’t quite make sense. There were many things in what Serris had just said that made his mind churn out a couple of questions. For starters, was she saying that this peculiar power he’d gotten from the demons was something even the all powerful God-dess hadn’t been able to use? But didn’t the God-dess make the demons? Didn’t the God-dess make everything? And if the God-dess made everything, then why would it be impossible for them to do what Noth did? Also, it wasn’t like it was the first time, but Serris had been much more disrespectful with her words towards the God-dess than usual just now. Was she really allowed to just get away with that?
…No, from looking at the face she was making, Serris certainly wasn’t allowed to get away with it.
The angel’s face looked as pale as a sheet. If she could sweat, it looked like she completely would have at that moment.
<...I didn’t just say that out loud, did I?>
Noth could only awkwardly look away, feeling as if he shouldn’t admit what he’d just heard. All hopes of clarifying any of his questions quickly flew away. The angel’s steel-like grip took hold of his arms, and Noth was abruptly shaken like a rattle.
Serris was shaking him so roughly that he couldn’t even breathe properly, let alone reply. After a few seconds she stopped and leapt away from him, almost falling backwards as she did so. Her eyes grew wide, and she slowly craned her neck up towards the ceiling. Noth could see her jaw visibly shaking from terror.
And suddenly the screaming angel was sucked away in a brief flash of light.