Book 3. Chapter 24

“Falling” Part 1

Vertigo clutched at her insides like the sharp claws of a hungry beast, unwilling to release its prey while the suffocating heat of boiling lava hit her face hard.

Shit! Kalysto thought, fearing to die in such a stupid way at the same time as the steam and the strong breeze created as she continued to fall, made it difficult for her to clearly know the terrifying panorama that awaited her several meters below.

<> Persephone complained.

“How the hell was I supposed to know it was a trap?” Kalysto defended herself, “Come on, Kalysto, focus!” She scolded herself as the familiar coldness washed over her entire body allowing her to concentrate enough to teleport a couple of meters higher and repeat the feat twice more until she reached the edge of the active volcano that was not yet close to erupting. But just as her foot touched the ground she lost her balance and fell back down, having to spend almost her last reserve of mana to get to safety and ended up sitting on the edge of the volcano’s mouth as her heart pounded violently against her ribs. “I thought I was going to die!” she shuttered with a completely pale face at the same time that her hands trembled as she clung tightly to the ground.

It took a few seconds before she was able to recover sufficiently from the shock and start walking away from the volcano as far as her legs would allow.

“Who the hell is crazy enough to organize something like this?” Artemis’ face came to her mind remembering that fairies could fly when they changed shape and shrunk in size, allowing them to easily survive the death trap.

Annoyed at the suspicion that the fairies had created such a trap for a half-breed like her, as soon as she regained some mana she reached out her shadow and pulled out one of the many invitations Aegir had given her, and after breaking it, she appeared again in front of the castle of the king of Desmond.

Her knees trembled at the continuous expenditure of mana causing her to lose her balance, but before she hit the ground, a swirl of shadows enveloped her and the figure of Aegir appeared, holding her from behind.

“What the hell happened?” he questioned her, his face bathed in concern. As he checked her for injuries and handed her one of the last bottles of holy water he had negotiated with Hanna.

But Kalysto refused to receive it. And instead she took out a health potion he had given her earlier, drinking the entire contents in one gulp.

“It was a trap, the first barrier was only supposed to have let fairies through but since the portal leads directly into a volcano with boiling lava, I suspect Artemis made a couple of modifications to my barrier before she and her people fled”, she muttered remembering the strange sense of longing and loss she felt as she walked through the empty castle. Then she shook her head, wanting to focus on the present and away from the embrace the king began to give her during her story. “I’d better get back to training.”

“You should rest. It’s been a long day and you’re practically out of mana,” he commented with concern, but she seemed to resent that overprotective attitude.

“Have you discovered any clues about Mhiralla’s whereabouts?”

“...” this time it was the king’s turn to be annoyed at her stubbornness and lack of care she had for herself, however since she still did not respond to any of his attempts at seduction, he chose to answer. “No, but someone who likes attention as much as she does won’t be long in coming back.”

But contrary to the demon king’s assumptions, another month passed without them having any clue about her.

“The north has finally fallen, it’s only a matter of time before the priestess of Seth finishes conquering the central part of the continent and finally heads towards us,” commented Aegir while they cut in two the body of one of the hundreds of sea monsters that every so often tried to invade his lands.

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“Absorb!” Kalysto muttered, but as it had been happening for some time, no matter how hard she tried, she had not acquired any new power and her stats just kept increasing. Annoyed by the lack of progress, she summoned her shadows and with them she killed another monster, using the tentacles of darkness as simple knives, although before they seemed so difficult to manipulate.

“You have improved,” Aegir congratulated her.

“But not enough,” she replied as she launched a gigantic fireball at another pair of monsters at the same time Aegir killed the rest with a simple swing of his sword, sending a wave of sharp darkness, cutting ninety bodies almost at the same time.

“You look frustrated,” he commented, approaching her. “I can assure you that you and your friends will be safe within my kingdom,” he promised her, however Kalysto knew that in the end, even Desmond’s kingdom would lose the long war.

“I think it is time to change strategy,” she suddenly announced. “It was the queen of the fairies who was your main source to maintain a part of your fertile lands, I doubt very much that your kingdom or your brother’s can last long if the war is prolonged.”

“I am fully aware that you lost one of my last allies with the fall of the Northern kingdoms, but I too recently resumed a treaty with one of the human kingdoms so we could stock up for a while while I get some talented earth mages.”

“Most of the remaining kingdoms are human and they are hostile against your race.”

“But you are not,” he whispered as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, using it as an excuse to approach her. However, Kalysto always kept her mental Barrier active, especially when she was near him, so there was no response from her.

“Travel with me to Earth, I know people in my world who can help you, you can always bring gold and jewels but if you have a couple of weapons I can duplicate them and my friend Sakura can take care of selling them so we could buy food on a large scale, I can’t help you get potions, but at least I can be of help with the food problem.”

“I am honored to see that you care about the welfare of my people. I will make the necessary arrangements and we will leave tonight.”

Although Kalysto had made the offer partly to shake off the nagging feeling that he was in debt to him, it was also true that she had finally learned the spell to move between worlds. And she had finally acquired the fifty thousand MP needed, along with the thirteen circles of Mana so that her body could support such an amount of mana in her body. Although she had no system, she had not regained her healing skill and she had not advanced as much as she would have liked during her hard and continuous training under Aegir’s guidance, it had not all been in vain.

After organizing her things for departure, and asking Alice to borrow her cell phone, Kalysto met Aegir outside the palace.

“Are you sure this is for the best?” Alice worried.

“I will be fine. Don't worry,” was all Kalysto replied as she looked with annoyance at Khara, a demon woman with aspirations of becoming the next queen and who looked at Kalysto as if she was the annoying scum that was ruining her plans of seducing the king.

Not knowing why she was doing it, Kalysto approached Aegir, pleased to see Khara's face become disfigured with rage as she watched her place a hand on the king's chest.

That's what you get for going around telling me I'm a dirty human every time no one is watching. Kalysto thought, a little pleased to see the woman's suffering and wounded pride.

“If I had known it was so easy to make you jealous I would have changed my strategy a long time ago,” Aegir murmured against her cheek as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” she replied, raising her mental shields immediately, realizing too late that she had forgotten to raise them again.

“...” an amused and seductive smile came to the lips of the handsome demon king. “Lower your shields,” he whispered against her ear, the warm breath caressing the skin of the former saintess. “And then tell me again that my closeness doesn't disturb you and that I don't interest you at all.” He challenged her just before activating the spell and taking them back to the same park where he had appeared before her the last time they were there.

As soon as they returned to Japan, Kalysto broke away from him, annoyed at the insinuation.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” she insisted stubbornly.

“You have nothing to worry about Khara, I am well aware of what her true aspirations are.”

“What you do with your former lover is not my problem,” she muttered as she pulled out Alice's phone, turned it on and waited until she got a signal.

“What she wants is my throne, not me. And to clarify, I never had a serious relationship with her, I only had a couple of casual encounters, and almost all of them while I was drunk,” he assured her as he watched her dial her friend's number. “I haven't touched any other woman since I met you,” he whispered against her ear at the same time Sakura's voice sounded on the other end of the line.

“Who is this?”

“He... Hello,” Kalysto cleared her throat before answering. “Sakura, it's Kalysto, I lost my things, along with my phone and the keys to my apartment. Can you lend me money for the cab and help me get in?”