Jezibel’s eyes widened in surprise – the snake wasn’t supposed to hatch until a few weeks from now. Before she could do anything, the snake slithered out of her hands and moved towards Nico’s body.
Nisos was about to rush to stop it, but Jezibel held him back with a hand on his shoulder. Puzzled, he glanced back at the snake. As I held Nico’s body in my arms, the snake climbed over her feet and moved to reach her hand. The snake then wrapped itself around Nico’s index finger and began swallowing its own tail, then started to glow in the soft, green light associated with soul magic.
I gasped, seeing the most complicated magic circle I had ever seen form over Nico’s heart. The snake began to slowly spin around Nico’s finger, trying to chase its own tail as the magic circle began spinning to match it.
A green glow began to envelope Nico’s body, and it slowly began to hover in the air. I let go and stood back, watching as the girl’s body was slowly moved upright. The snake slowed to a halt, and with it, the magic circle as well, before its body turned into a faintly glowing, snake-shaped ring of ink.
As the snake vanished, so did the magic circle, and Nicotris slowly opened her eyes.
The glow faded, and Nico fell to the ground, where I hurriedly steadied her. We were all stunned speechless as Nicotris woke from her stupor.
Did Jezibel’s snake just revive Nico?
“…Why am I alive?” she mumbled out loud, and that was enough to shake us into action.
“Nico!” I said, tackling the girl straight into the ground.
“Tank gudneth yow awive!” I cried, tears and snot covered my face as I sobbed into the girl’s shoulder.
Nisos silently shut his eyes and held his hands together in prayer, presumably thanking the gods for the miracle of Nicotris’s revival.
“How did you achieve such an astonishing feat? Wasn’t your Juvenile Ouroboros still due to hatch in a few weeks?” Ati asked Jezibel with a baffled expression, who in turn had a hand on her chest in relief.
“…I don’t know. All I know is that I was reeling from Lady Sept’s death, which happened because she overreached to save my life. Then I saw a system message telling me Yasha’s ready to hatch, and I felt a strong urge to summon it.”
She rubbed the tattoo on her left arm thoughtfully.
“Yasha must have felt my distress and wanted to help me. I can’t think of anything else.”
They both turned to me, who was crying, and Nico, who was too busy being flustered to do anything about it.
“No matter how this happened, I am only grateful for the result. Thank you, Jezibel.” Nisos said gratefully.
Jezibel shrugged.
“Don’t thank me; thank Yasha, whenever she wakes up, anyway. She’s exhausted and needs to rest for a while.”
***
“If you get yourself killed again, I swear I’ll kill you!” I yelled.
“I get it, I am sorry for scaring you all. I didn’t mean to trouble you, but I still think I made the right decision.” She responded.
My eyebrows furrowed and my veins bulged.
“You wanna go again?! Come on, we’re going straight to the arena so I can beat some sense into you, you stubborn idiot!” I said stomping towards the exit.
“Kiara, wait! I am not going to fight you, stop being so childish!” she said, following me.
“Stupid, stupid, STUPID!” I yelled, ignoring her objections.
If those undead halfway through the tunnel are still alive, or dead, or whatever the hell they are, they should make for decent punching bags to vent with.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Kiara, wait for us!” Nisos said as he tried to catch up to us.
“Pardon, but you guys go ahead. I’ll check something out rather quickly and catch up to you.” He said cryptically.
Jezibel looked briefly puzzled but nodded to him.
“Don’t take too long!” She said as she left to follow the rest of us.
Ati turned away and walked in the opposite direction with a dark, grim expression.
***
Baalshillek played dead and bided his time, hoping that the loathsome children walked away and left him to regenerate his body and escape.
“What rotten luck… A goddess’s champion and a bloody dragon worked together just to stop my rise to greatness. I’ll remember this humiliation and return it ten-fold! Just you wait!” he seethed internally, promising vengeance in his heart.
As the brats stepped away far out of earshot, the decapitated head slowly began to regenerate the rest of his body.
Just as he started feeling his neck begin regenerating into his chest, a wind blade chopped off half-way through his neck, decapitating him once again.
The necromancer let out a silent scream; his vocal cords were shredded by the wind blade, and his lungs were a few meters away and two dozen pieces too many to supply them with air.
“Just as I had feared. Good thing I came back to see your dead body for myself.” A voice said.
Suddenly, his head was pulled off the ground by the hair, and his gaze met the falconman boy’s.
The necromancer tried to speak, but he couldn’t. Instead, he used what little mana he had to write small glyphs in the air between them.
‘Don’t rush, boy. We can work out a deal. I can grant you power beyond your wildest dreams.’ He wrote, making sure to reorient the words for the boy’s benefit.
“Hmm…” the boy hummed silently.
Baalshillek smiled.
This boy seemed amenable to reas-
Just as Baalshillek had that thought, the falconman pushed his thumb through the necromancer’s right eye, making him shriek silently with pain once again.
The falconman stared coldly at the necromancer’s head.
“I think you understand the situation you’re in, maggot.” He said quietly, his voice dripping with contempt.
He continued glaring at the Baalshillek as the necromancer slowly managed to get a handle on the pain.
All of Baalshillek’s composure was gone, replaced by a look of sheer terror.
He hurriedly wrote with a rushed handwriting, not even bothering to write it in the falconman’s orientation.
‘Please don’t kill me!’
At those words, the boy laughed heartily.
For moments, the necromancer looked on with terrified confusion. Was this boy a lunatic?
Baalshillek had no idea.
The boy eventually got his laughter under control.
“Oh, don’t you worry. I am not going to kill you until we’ve had a little talk…” He said with a grim smile.
Hope welled up within the necromancer.
Perhaps this was his chance to negotiate for his life?
“…No matter how badly you ask for it.”
***
We began descending down the mountain, and it’s been nearly half an hour since Ati stayed back.
“What’s he doing all this time?” I asked.
“Beats me. He said he’ll catch up to us soon. More importantly, what are we going to do now?” Jezibel answered.
“We need to sit down and take a look at our system notifications. I am sure we each got a lot out of that battle.” Nisos said with cheer in his voice.
“We can do that later. We’ve got a lot of things to do first – namely clearing our names and guiding Tyr’s guards to the Guild’s base.” Nico sighed.
That reminds me.
“Oh yeah! Your goddess said she cleared our names and that both the Tyrian and Tameryian gods wanted to reward us! Oooooh, I can’t wait to see what they have for us!” I said excitedly.
Jezibel’s eyes grew sharper at my words.
“Remind me, did she promise us a monetary reward?!” she said a little too quickly, getting up into my face with an intensity only a merchant could have.
“Err, maybe? I don’t think she mentioned what the rewards actually were.”
The girl fell back dejectedly, heaving a big sigh.
“…Maybe you can sell whatever rewards they give us?” Nisos said, trying to cheer her up.
“Yeah, I am not risking offending a god by selling a gift meant for me! Please, please, please give me money!” she said, rubbing her hands in prayer towards the sky.
Nico shook her head in exasperation at the display.
Before anyone else could say anything, a new system message appeared in our vision.
You have killed an [Unholy Vampire Lv. 33 – Emperor of Death Lv. 182]!
19,816,172 EXP awarded!
7,481,943 bonus EXP awarded due to the effects of [Giant Slayer]!
Experience gain from kill split between combatants based on contribution.
Experience gain divided between [Dragon Shifter] (100%) and [Sovereign of Gravity] (0%)!
Nico and I instantly stopped in our tracks, unable to move so much as an inch from where we stood.
Nisos and Jezibel stopped as we did.
“Is everything alright?” Nisos asked.
“…Did you guys get that system notification?” Nico answered with another question, and I nodded my head.
“What notification? I didn’t get anything.” She answered.
“So that’s what Ati was doing…” I whispered.
The other two were confused, and Nico held a hand to her face.
“What a blunder. I should have confirmed the necromancer’s death before we left.” She said grimly.
“Wait, he’s still alive?!” Jezibel shrieked, and I shook my head.
“No, we just got the notification for the kill now. We got swept up in the moment and forgot to make sure the bastard was dead. Thank goodness Ati stayed back.”