The cloth revealed a human face. It was a dark blue, and the eyes had shriveled up, to the point that only gray, prune-like objects remained in the sockets. An aged yellow slip of paper hung from the creatures forehead, covering the center of the face. El-Melloi recoiled in shock, as his free hand came up to his chin for contemplation.
"A Jiangshi..?" Liam could hear the Lord muttering to himself before removing the talisman from the corpses' head. He stared at it with scrutinizing eyes, turning it in many different angles and even inspecting the back of the paper.
"...jiangshi... something from the east?" Gray spoke up, much to Liam's surprise. El-Melloi shook his head before placing the talisman inside his jacket.
"A Jiangshi is a creature from Chinese folklore, typically translated to 'hopping vampire', or zombie. Wraiths would be the typical cause of this via possessing a corpse, or even be considered a Dead created by a Dead Apostle. However..."
The man looked up at Liam for a moment before turning back to the creature. He tore apart the dark clothing with a dagger, inspecting the torso and moving on to its arms.
"This thing used magecraft-something almost impossible for such a low class spirit. Which makes me think," The Lord sliced through the cloth on the left arm, turning it as if to see a specific mark. "This was more akin to a Puppet."
"It's right arm." Liam spoke suddenly, moving around to prop himself up on the tree which towered over them. The bark pricked at his flesh. It was rough, almost spiky, threatening to pierce through his thin t-shirt. "I saw it's right arm glow before. Some sort of symbol."
El-Melloi quickly moved on to the arm, ripping away the sleeve and turning it upwards.
The odd, key-like glyph was almost vanished along the creatures forearm. It seemed almost as if someone had scratched it into the arm with just their nail, and the skin was just now returning to it's original form.
"Shit." The man threw down the arm and stood up, brushing off his coat and pants from any filth that accumulated. He gestured to the students to return back to the apartment.
"We can leave the body there. It'll disintegrate once light touches it."
- -
Lord El-Melloi II sent him back to the dormitory. Or more appropriately, he had Gray escort him back.
"I would advise that you always travel with someone for a while. Preferably someone with high combative abilities." The Lord said before he sent the two off.
Liam and Gray walked silently back to their dorms, crossing through the thin, metal gate which separated the building from the outside world. It felt odd for him to be with her again after what he saw.
The gigantic scythe plunged into the zombie. Her cold, yet intense expression as she destroyed it. His stomach almost churned as he thought of the battle. In the moment, adrenaline had numbed any fear had would have normally felt, but reality called for balance, so it began to creep back through his body. The events played through his mind. So close to death.
"Thank you." Liam spoke as they entered the doorway, although his statement provoked a pause in movement for both of them.
"You really saved me back then. I..." His words stopped, held back by the maelstrom occurring within himself. They turned to each other in the entrance of the building. It was only then he looked down to see his hands shaking.
'I almost died.' That statement rang through his head, begging to me let out, but his nerves wouldn't process such a request. It was only when Gray spoke that his body seemed to reset again.
"I was afraid too." She said. Her head always seemed to be permanently angled downwards. Her face and eyes always shadowed by the large hood over her head.
It shocked Liam. How such a timid and withdrawn girl could do such monstrous actions. Leaping from a car, eviscerating a zombie with such skill. Two completely opposing sides manifest in a single person.
Liam's face curled into a smile as the paradox settled into his mind. He removed his torn jacket, folding it over his still shaking arm.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"You're still human, too, huh?" He almost let out a laugh. As far as he knew, they were the only normal people left in the world of Magi. Everyone else was raised and conditioned in that cruel and sadistic world.
Gray simply nodded back as they continued into the dormitory. They bid each other good night before returning to their rooms.
Liam slept that night, for the first time in a while.
- -
The boy knocked on the door, checking one last time that this was the correct office.
It has been two days since the last attack, and Liam had been scheduled to meet with a specialist by his teacher.
According to the directions, the magus' office was located in the Spiritual Evocation department, which simply lead to more confusion for Liam. Why would the Lord have him meet a summoning specialist?
The tinted door opened slowly, without a person behind it. Liam remained relatively unfazed, being used to new magic shenanigans appearing left and right around him. He pushed the door all the way open before entering.
He immediately regretted walking in as he saw the numerous jars placed around the floor.
He froze, slowly lifting his foot to maneuver around the different containers without spilling or breaking anything. The woman who sat at the desk a few meters in front of him chuckled, spinning her chair to face him.
"I assume you're Liam Sinclair?" She hummed, watching as Liam navigated through the jars. He made it to the center, where there was a large circle of open space before nodding.
"Good. I'm Vivienne Moller. I will be revealing your Origin today."
The woman stood from her desk and hopped over it, landing perfectly within the spaces between a collection of jars.
Liam had heard of Origins in his last class. They were supposedly the center of a person's being, from which all their actions would revolve around or be influenced by. Some people even had elements that matched their Origin. He frowned, wondering what had prompted El-Melloi to look into Liam's own Origin.
Vivienne closed her eyes, which were kept behind large, oval classes. Her hair was an odd, dark shade of purple, tied up in a large ponytail. She wore a more formal attire, with a pitch black dress and slick white jacket over it. She began her ritual immediately.
"Hjóla."
The door behind Liam slammed close, and the tops of all the jars popped off. Inside each one was a different colored... sand? He glanced at a few and only managed to make out some sort of powder or grain within each of them.
"Frá rótum til útibúa eru níu, inni í þeirri tíundu." Vivienne continued. Liam could feel the magical energy emanating from the woman, pulsing out in all directions. He could feel the ley line beneath them. It writhed with each pulse, Vivienne sending her commands to her foundation.
The sands in each jar began to rise, collecting together to form nine spheres around Liam, all multi-colored from the different combinations of substances.
"Brotið og snúið við, farið aftur í þrjú." The magus continued her ritual. The jars themselves shook now, and Liam could have sworn the floorboards beneath had started to crack. The nine spheres all shattered back into powder, before collecting to form three larger spheres around the boy.
"Þeir þrír minnka í tvö, þar til einn stendur utan. Sá hverfur, til að opinbera Ekkert"
The sand-spheres quickly shifted, forming two beside Liam, before combining into one between him and Vivienne, and then-
It vanished.
The orb glowed brightly for merely a second before all of the sand simply winked out of reality. He frowned as he tried to recall that second back from his memories. Liam swore he saw something within that second, but his brain wouldn't allow him to see it. He looked back up and saw the woman had opened her eyes.
"That's seriously scary." She mumbled before moving around back to her desk, simply shoving the empty jars with the her foot. Liam's frown grew deeper as he approached the desk. He didn't move the jars, still waiting for some sort of life-threatening curse to fall upon him if he did.
"What is? What did you see?"
Vivienne laughed and shook her head, removing her glasses.
"That damned teacher. He was right on the mark." She explained before looking back up to Liam with tired eyes. Only now did he see her apparent age once he got close-or perhaps performing the ritual was simply that exhausting.
"Your Origin is Seamlessness."
He waited for more explanation, leaving the air empty of words for a few moments. Upon seeing she wouldn't oblige him, Liam spoke instead,
"Is that even a word?" He huffed, confused. "What does that even mean for me?"
"You could describe it in other ways." The woman explained as she sat back in her leather chair. "Faultless, Completion, numerous other synonyms. But personally, Seamless seems to be more exact." She wiped her head, swiping away small beads of sweat that had accumulated from the working.
"Imagine you take a rope and cut it. If you want to repair it, what do you do?" With this question, Liam paused, trying to think of a magus like answer.
"Revert it?"
"No. You tie the two ends together." She snapped, seemingly annoyed by the unusual answer. "However, when you tie the two together, it's now imperfect. There's a knot in between them." She then pointed at Liam, leaning forward and resting her elbows against her dark wooden desk.
"You are the opposite. You meld the two pieces together until they're indistinguishable." Vivienne continued. "If that hurts your brain, think of two water droplets. When they combine, they combine completely. There are no seams or imperfection that suggest they were once separate-they are now and always was a single droplet."
Liam nodded as the information fit inside his mind. It explained his unusual talent for Reinforcement, and the Lord's comment about a suspicion he had.
"Thank you for your time." He thanked her with a smile, turning to exit the office.
"Wait! Tell your teacher he owes me big time. I'm not cheap, ya know!" She called back before he closed the door. Liam laughed and gave a nod back in agreement before closing the door. It was then his phone began ringing.