“Ow!” Juna yelped a little as he poured alcohol on her wounds. “Hey, watch it already! You’ve poured enough!”
He kept dousing the wounds despite her woes. Some of the cuts had gone a bit deeper than he had first thought. “The last thing we need is for you to get an infection.”
Juna could hate him while he treated her all she wanted, but he’d do everything in his power to ensure she didn’t die from something so simple. She whined a bit more as he began pouring it on another cut.
They were currently situated in the middle sector of the city. The sounds of Lucias fighting Noreko from far away were quite evident for them all to hear as he and a bunch of others gathered near the closed gate.
Kiran began to bandage her wounds that she appeared eager to get over with. “Thanks by the way,” she said.
“Not a problem.”
“Who taught you how to dress wounds?”
“If I knew I’d tell you.” His instincts did a lot of the work for him. It must’ve been something he learned in his past life like many other things.
With new bandages covering her cuts, he tossed her a new dry shirt. Thankfully, it had stopped raining so they didn’t have to worry about being outside and getting drenched like earlier.
Many of the nearby soldiers and city guards who served Lucias appeared quite distraught to witness Lucias in this form. Despite the rumors surrounding him, most of them apparently weren’t aware that he was a Divine Familiar.
He hadn’t just kept it a secret from Kiran and the coalition. He had kept it a secret from the majority of his own people. He could no longer hide that power of his any longer, however. It was out in the open for all to see.
Halmond dove through the air eventually landing on a nearby crate that sat right next to the one Juna sat on.
“What’s the situation out there?” Kiran asked.
“They’re still fighting,” Halmond said.
“How is that even possible?” Juna said.
“Noreko’s done nothing but harvest souls since coming here. Therefore he has more than enough power to take advantage of and keep himself going. Although I doubt it will last for much longer. My master will most certainly prevail.”
“And what if he doesn’t?” Kiran said.
“Then it’ll be up to us to defeat Noreko. If he does somehow win against my master, he at the very least will be weakened, but we cannot underestimate any being that can harvest souls.”
If it weren’t for Noreko’s ability to use souls in a similar way that a person might use an arcane root, he’d be like every other sorcerer or sorceress in this domain who could not use magic. But like Kiran, souls did not operate the same way mana did or the absence of it. It was an entirely separate source of power much like arcane roots that possessed tons of excess magical energy.
Lar and Silvy began to approach.
“What about the banespawn then?” Kiran asked as Halmond appeared eager to go and inform others about what all was going on.
“There is some good news there. Most of them have begun to flee the city. From what I saw up in the sky, many found themselves caught in the skirmish between my master and Noreko. Try as they might, with their leader gone and two powerful beings fighting each other is a little too much for them to handle. I hope that even when their reinforcements arrive, they make the wise decision to flee altogether.”
“After seeing that master of yours,” Lar said, “I doubt they’ll want anything to do with this place anymore.”
“My thoughts as well.” Halmond began to flap his wings. “I will come back soon. I must inform the others of all that I’ve learned.”
Lar eyed Juna. “Feeling better now?”
“As good as new,” Juna said with a flex of her arm muscles.
The ground began to shake once more. A terrifying screech entered their ears ensuring not a single person in Valak would miss it. The three of them rushed over towards the closed gate and got up on the wall. The Red Serpent was a fair distance away, but even Kiran could see from this vantage point, that Lucias was taking serious injuries.
If Noreko can put up a fight against a Divine Familiar and last this long, then what even is he? From what he had told them, he was not from this world. He came from a world different than theirs.
A bright golden light flashed as The Red Serpent fell backward. Entire structures became decimated instantly. This isn’t looking good.
“Lar,” Kiran said. “From your perspective, can Lucias defeat Noreko?”
“Without knowing how truly strong Noreko is, I cannot definitively say. It’s true that Divine Familiars are incredibly powerful beings. But they are not unstoppable.”
His ears became assaulted by another harrowing cry. A glorious ray of golden light spread out for half a second and then right after, Lucias rose once more.
There was safety here behind this wall. But it was perhaps a false sense of safety when at any second, Lucias could end up defeated leaving them to fend against Noreko once more. Given his strength, Kiran doubted that even if he did tap into his own destructive power, it likely would not be enough to defeat Noreko.
“Maybe we should help him.”
“What?” Silvy said. “We’ll likely end up pummeled with everything else over there if we do that.”
“We can’t take any chances.” Kiran began to walk off the wall and went over towards Felmir who stood at the ready. “Felmir.”
He remained in his bear form for now with the rest of the bear familiars. “What is it?”
“I need to go back out there. I’m going to try to help Lucias.”
“Are you mad?”
“Possibly.”
Felmir approached him a little. “Have you ever considered that you’re a little, too eager to throw yourself into danger?”
Kiran shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, but at this point I’m used to it.”
“Well, it’s your life. Just don’t expect any of us to accompany you. Lucias ordered us to remain here beside Halmond. Although, he didn’t make such an order for you all.” Felmir got the attention of the armed guards and soldiers at the wall. “Open the gate!”
They began to open it.
“A-are you really going through with this?” Juna asked.
“I meant it when I said it,” he said with Lar willing to go with him. “You coming with us?”
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Her eyes darted around. She began to nervously scratch her cheek and sigh. “I guess. It’s not like I value my life or anything like that.”
When the gate fully opened, the three of them exited the safety of this sector. Unlike previously though when they entered the lower sector of Valak, there weren’t lots of banespawn patrols prowling about. Instead, they had a giant serpent and a murderous sorcerer on the loose fighting each other causing tons of destruction.
He walked with his sword at the ready. The three of them marched on remaining prepared for any potential banespawn that might’ve been foolish enough to remain here.
By the time they neared Lucias and Noreko, they managed to not encounter any banespawn. He didn’t have much fear for them at this point though. What he feared was the giant serpent that slammed their entire body down across the street from them.
As they hid themselves behind a building, he gazed out and saw a tattered person land on the cobbled ground.
There you are.
Noreko—who still maintained the appearance of Zorge—was covered in dirt and grime. His attire was entirely tattered and frayed. Most of his chest and backside were left exposed as well. So this is what I could expect to have if I were to somehow harvest souls and use them. Their power was quite impressive, but it came at a great cost.
Noreko began to mutter an incantation. Since he was too far away he couldn’t make out what he was saying. It did sound foreign to him. His incantation was a fairly lengthy one as he contorted their arms and even his legs.
At first, nothing occurred, but as Lucias rushed towards him once more, whatever incantation Noreko had prepared for him, unleashed itself. Giant pieces of the ground flew up towards Lucias. Lucias let out a wretched scream as giant pieces of debris broke apart across their head.
Despite the carnage unleashed upon their body, Lucias kept charging forward. Just as they prepared to launch their teeth into Noreko, a giant sharp spike formed from the ground went straight through his mouth and exited through them.
Lucias’s large serpent body collapsed to the ground. The once yellow eyes dimmed and appeared for all intents and purposes, lifeless. Steam began to rise from their body and the fires spreading from nearby buildings reflected off their still-open eyes.
Noreko’s ability to stand wavered. He went to one knee with his tattered back facing them.
This is our chance. I have to take it.
“Are you just going to stay behind there and hide this entire time?”
Kiran froze realizing Noreko already knew they were there.
“I’ve become quite familiar with that soul of yours. I can sense it from miles away.” Noreko stood up and began to cough out blood.
Kiran showed himself as the sorcerer wiped the blood free from his lips. He eyed Lucias who remained there on the ground appearing dead. He wasn’t actually dead though. It wasn’t that easy to kill a Divine Familiar if what he knew about them was correct.
“You’re not looking so good,” Kiran said. He’s barely hanging on at this point. I can tell just by looking at him.
Noreko laughed a little as he began to cough once more. His cough grew worse forcing him to begin to cough something out.
A strange black mass hit the ground. It wriggled around only for Noreko to stomp on it. It let out a strange noise that caused Kiran to look at him with disgust.
Their face had turned quite pale. The false face they wore appeared more wrinkled and less like Zorge’s.
His arm suddenly went up towards Kiran. Noreko grimaced a little only for him to appear to accept his fate that his power was no more. Though futile, he muttered an incantation only for nothing to occur. “Luck’s on your side, Kiran. It appears my time is up. How fortunate you are. And all it took was a divine being to drain me of all that I am.”
“That’s entirely your fault.” Kiran came to stand just a couple of feet away from the sorcerer who kept deteriorating every second.
“Farewell—”
Kiran plunged his sword straight through his heart before he could even finish what he was saying. He pulled it out allowing his body to hit the ground.
Black blood began to fill the ground beneath his corpse. His body kept withering away as well only to reveal a non-human skeleton.
“Kiran.”
He kept observing the skeleton finding it quite horrid to look at. A creature wearing the skin of a human, but not human whatsoever. At least he’s finally dead. It would be a lie for him to suggest he wasn’t somewhat pleased to do the final killing blow. In reality, Noreko was already a walking corpse. He had just accelerated his inevitable death. I’ll have to thank Lucias assuming he doesn’t slaughter us all.
“Kiran,” Lar said as a hand came to grip his shoulder. “We should leave before—”
Glorious golden light pulsed from The Red Serpent. Grave injuries and wounds began to heal and close up. The once dim yellow eyes became filled with glorious light that caused him to wince.
From far away, such a sight was quite the thing to behold. But to see this process up close was something mesmerizing.
It was truly terrifying as well. Lucias wasn’t just a familiar. He had ascended to become something divine. That divinity wasn’t as divine as he might want however as Lucias wasn’t capable of controlling this form of himself.
An eagle flew down towards them. “Get out of here!” Halmond changed forms with him between them and the recovering Lucias. “I will try to get him to change back, but there can be no guarantees.”
“What if you can’t?” Lar yelled back.
“Then I will try to lure him out of the city.”
“How are you going to accomplish that?” Kiran then asked loudly.
“By attacking him of course.” Well that’s one way to do it. “Now go already. I’ll take it from here!”
They immediately began fleeing away from this area. He didn’t even bother to look back as Lucias roared and rose back up.
When they made it back to the gate, it began to open allowing them back in.
“Is he dead?” Felmir asked with a lot of other members from the coalition standing by.
He nodded his head. “We’ve still got Lucias to worry about, unfortunately.”
From atop the wall, they began to watch as Halmond appeared to attack his master. The serpent began heading towards the direction of the southern gate of the city.
This plan of his seemed to be working. Until they stopped for a moment and began looking around. Whatever Halmond was doing, started to not work any longer. If anything, The Red Serpent likely figured out his plan.
“He’s looking right at us!” a soldier yelled aloud.
A chill ran down his spine as the serpent, even from quite a distance away, appeared eager to come towards them instead. He likely knew there was nothing for them to get from outside the city. There aren’t all that many of us relatively speaking, but there’s enough of us to satiate a beast that has no control over itself.
People began to flee knowing they didn’t stand a chance against Lucias in this form.
“Are you not coming?” Lar asked behind him.
His instincts wanted him to go. Everything inside of himself wanted him to do just that. But at the same time, deep down in his gut, he got a sense that he should stay right here.
He had felt this way before when he encountered another Divine Familiar. Was it a mere fluke that Lou ended up not striking Lar and I down? Is it possible I can do that again, except this time do it for us all?
“You’re not doing this again, are you?”
“I am,” he said. “That’s what my gut is telling me.”
“You’re really unbelievable, you know that right? Try to care about your own life for once.”
He smiled as he watched Lucias slithering his way to them causing numerous buildings to collapse as he did so. “Go ahead and flee with them.”
That would be a wise decision. If this did end up not working, she’d at least have a chance of surviving. But rather than flee, she instead came to stand beside him. “Sorry, but if you’re going to die, I’m dying with you.”
Kiran tightly grasped her hand feeling the warmth exuding from her palm.
“What are you two doing?” Halmond yelled down to them as he flew above them.
“I’m going to knock a little sense into Lucias.”
Halmond must’ve had a hard time believing that he had just said that. He didn’t bother replying back though. He probably realized that he was a bit too committed at this point to assuage Kiran any differently so he just flew away and fled with everybody else.
I don’t know if this will work. But if my gut says to give it a try, then I’ll be damned if I don’t give it a shot. If he didn’t do this, then so many more will die. He’d be a victim with the rest of them so if he was to die, then he might as well do it while giving it his best shot.
The wall they stood upon shook more and more. He began to hold his companion’s hand even more tightly as Lucias opened his mouth and revealed his fangs to them from afar only to reach them at a blindingly fast rate.