Chapter 5: Rebuke

The green flames burst into action at Naomi’s assent to the deal. Green tendrils of flame extended from the fire and reached towards Naomi and the floating contract. When one of the tendrils touched the contract, it began to glow the same shade of green as Cindara’s flames.

As the remaining tendrils began to latch onto Naomi, she braced herself for the sting of their heat. She gasped the moment the first one touched her shoulder but felt no heat. Another connected to her chest, and again there was no burning or stinging sensation.

Cindara began to chant in an unknown language to Naomi. Pulses of yellow energy began flowing from the tendrils into Naomi. Each pulse set off a fluttering sensation in her stomach, almost like she was intermittently falling and abruptly stopping.

The fire erupted as one final pulse came from the tendrils. A roar came from the fire and echoed in the endless void around Naomi. Slowly the tendrils receded back into the flames, and Naomi fell to her knees once more.

The falling sensation dwindled in her stomach, and she began to sense a warm sensation from her left arm. She pulled her left sleeve back and her eyes widened at the change. Encircling the length of her arm were numerous runes of purple light. None of them registered as a familiar language, and they ended at the base of her hand.

The runs flared to life, each turning into a bright shade of purple and pulsing with energy. Naomi squinted as she tried to keep watching the process unfold. Tears began welling in her eyes as she tried to endure the onslaught of brightness.

In a few heartbeats, the runes began to dim. The runes disappeared at random as soon as the light went out. When the final rune disappeared, her arm went back to the shade of caramel it was before. She sighed in relief.

“The contract is set. You are now free to go.” Cindara whispered.

Something was different. The voice wasn’t coming from the flames like before. This was inside her head. She looked towards the flames and saw that the yellow eyes that regarded her before were gone from the green flames.

“Don’t worry, this is just an easier way to communicate with you while we work together darling. You won’t need to use your lips to speak with me, but rather your thoughts will be enough.” Cindara explained.

“Being in my head wasn’t part of the deal.” Naomi said out loud. “I don’t want you to go flicking through my memories or thoughts like you own the place.”

Laughter echoed inside her mind.

“Relax little one. If I thought your mind contained anything interesting, I would have just kept you around for conversation. Somehow, I doubt your obsession with reality television or sweets is going to stir my interest much” Cindara explained.

“What the fuck? You DID read my mind!” Naomi stamped her foot at the realization.

“I skimmed. Trust me, you are not as interesting as you think you are.” Cindara countered. “Be at peace, I won’t access your thoughts at will or read your mind now that our contract is in place. But I wanted to see if you really were as dull as you look before jumping into a contract with each other.”

The surge of anger and embarrassment was swept away at Cindara’s answer. It was one thing to bind herself to an unknown entity like she had, but her thoughts were private.

This new power better be worth this demonic Jiminy Cricket in my head.

Almost on que, the screen she had seen before came into view again.

Name: Naomi Salazar

Class: Shadowmancer

Birth Class: Priest

HP: 200/200

Mana: 100/100

Stamina: 100/100

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Level: 1

Available Abilities: 4

Ability: Healing Touch:

You have a connection to all things holy. Physical contact with an ally will heal them if the connection is uninterrupted or until you are out of mana. Current cost: 5 mana/second .

Ability: Holy Arc:

The forces of light lend you their power. Cast an arc of light to burn through your enemies and heal your allies.

Cost: 15 mana/cast

Ability: Dark Immolate:

Unleash shadow flames that burn your enemy with dark energy. The flames are inextinguishable by normal means and inflict continuous damage.

Cost: 25 mana/cast

Ability: Eldritch Tendril:

Conjure a shadowy tendril to ensnare and drain mana from your enemy. You can throw or strike the ensnared enemy with the tendril.

Cost: 5 mana/second

My health is full again…and higher now?

“Before you say anything, you might have noticed some changes. You are slightly more durable now with our contract in place. When I found you, I thought a sneeze would have been enough to do you in. I gave you a top off on your mana as well as a courtesy. I started small with these changes, and you’ll need to do the rest to gain more access to the plethora of powers I can give you.” Cindara explained.

“The rest as in…?” Naomi began.

“Kill. Maim. Overcome. All of the above. You are in control of the manner in which you use the strength I have imbued you with. Should you prove my hypothesis wrong and whither in the face of danger by letting yourself get killed, then the power simply returns to me.”

Naomi gasped. The transactional nature of the agreement was easy enough to understand, but the follow-up that was necessary to grow was the last thing on her mind.

“What happened to ‘unfathomable cosmic power’? I only see two new abilities and a slight bump in my health. That’s all very fathomable to me.” Naomi asked.

“I told you we would start small. I wasn’t kidding when I said you would set yourself on fire if I gave you every and all abilities at my disposal. Your mind would break at the amount of knowledge it would take to retain every spell. Your body isn’t prepared to handle that level of mana. You have a lot to learn and need to be patient in honing these gifts I give you. As you fight, you will gain experience and increase your skills when you gain a level with enough experience. The sky’s the limit with how much you can grow. The question is: do you have enough strength and will to grow at all?”

As soon as Cindara finished, the fire began to flicker and dim.

“I leave the rest to you, darling.” Her voice faded in Naomi’s mind.

The fire snuffed out. Leaving Naomi in darkness everywhere.

She closed her eyes, and the sensation of falling came upon her once again.

Shouts rang out as the clash of iron against iron echoed through the dense forest. Ambrosia, clad in her gleaming plate armor, was a whirlwind of destruction. Her war hammer descended with lethal precision onto a hobbled troll’s chest. Blood and bone exploded on impact, the creature's body jolting violently before collapsing lifelessly.

With a practiced motion, Ambrosia wrenched her hammer from the troll's ravaged chest, flinging off the clinging viscera. She paused for a moment, her seasoned eyes scanning the battlefield. It was a maelstrom of violence: spells cast by her team arced into the trees, targeting trolls attempting a desperate climb to safety. Arrows whistled through the air, each seeking a fatal embrace. Her warriors, each a master of their craft, fought with a ferocity born of necessity, parrying thrown knives and sidestepping lunging spears.

This day had been an inevitability. The border they shared with the forest had always been a simmering cauldron of tension, but the recent gate opening so close to troll territory had escalated it to a boiling point. A preemptive strike had been their only choice.

However, the reality of their enemy's numbers was a stark contrast to their estimates. The forest teemed with trolls, each more ferocious than the last. Ambrosia knew that the survival of her team hinged on their ability to adapt and overcome this overwhelming tide.

Their designation as troll-hunters was not just a title; it was an identity forged by the Church of Celestials. From the moment they could wield a blade, they had been honed into instruments of precise lethality, with every day spent mastering the art of troll extermination. Each member of her team was a specialist, but even specialists could be overwhelmed.

The forest around them seemed to pulsate with the battle's fury. Each clash, each spell cast, and each life taken was a note in the grim symphony of war. Ambrosia, at the heart of it, was both conductor and participant, her hammer singing a deadly tune.

But as the battle raged, her attention was drawn to the captives bound to wooden posts at the village's edge. Among them, a lone figure stood out—a woman surrounded by a strange, dark aura, her eyes burning with an unspoken promise of power and vengeance. This unexpected anomaly piqued Ambrosia's interest.

As the violence around her jolted Ambrosia back to the task at hand, she saw the strange woman begin to stand. She held up her left hand, and what appeared to be a floating dark orb floating in her palm. Strange lights began to glow on her arm below the orb, and without warning the woman cast her hand out towards a nearby troll. The troll began to scream in agony, but no visible blow had been struck.

It began to reach behind itself, slapping its back as its screams grew louder and louder. As it turned, Ambrosia saw the cause of its suffering; a dark purple flame enveloping its lower back and spreading up to its shoulder blades.

The troll threw itself into the dirt and rolled to smother the flames. They didn’t go out. The terror in its eyes began to grow as the flames began to reach its head burning skin and clothing together. The smell of fusing flesh and leather was palpable even in the gore-ridden battlefield.

Ambrosia took an involuntary step backwards as the scene unfolded and knew the kind of magic that could conjure such unnatural flames.

“Demons…” she whispered.