“Holy shit!” I say as I approach the battlefield from above. It may be night but it isn’t dark. Spells are flying left and right, illuminating the place.
There are no clouds in the sky so I check by myself if there are any iron blimps in the air but after a few minutes of flying around I found nothing physical or magical outside of normal. If this has something to do with them we will have a hard time finding.
As I approach the ground to help the people there I notice the lack of monster corpses for a battle going on so furiously. When I reach the ground I finally understand what is happening.
The monsters are literally disappearing once you kill them and another one pops out a few hundred meters away above ground. These monsters are not uniform. They share birdlike characteristics like feathers, beaks, wings and bird claws but the problem is that everything is all over the place. There are just giant birds but there also are what looks like to be humans covered in feathers with wings stitched to any part of its body someone could find. At least no giant monster appeared as of yet by the looks of everything. These monsters are more or less human-sized.
I make sure to make myself visible to who I think is Sophia by creating wings made out of fire for a moment and drop in the middle of the monsters..
The people fighting there are in a big circle with knights in the front, archers backing them up and the mages in the very center. Looks like the circle is moving around little by little to keep with the movement and spawn of the monsters. I can’t really count everyone but a quick guess is that there are around 500 people there with most of them being the ones on the frontline. There are a few adventurers but most people there look to be knights of some sort.
I start cutting the monsters as they begin to approach me and to my surprise they are very fragile. For creatures that look so alive they are weaker than a common zombie.
As I swing my Mira non stop in all directions, I also try to find exactly the origin point of all of this. I can feel mana coming from these beings and it vanishes as soon as their body does. There has to be some sort of spell doing this.
I try to check if there is a limit to how far away they can spawn again but looks like there isn’t. I kept going south for a few minutes to see if the monsters would stop spawning to the south but they didn't. I could try to increase the distance but I don’t feel like that is the best option. What if they decide to go south? The troops probably won’t be able to move fast enough. If I had to pick a number, there are probably around 2000 monsters at any one time. If they decide to go south I could probably deal with them for a while but I would use too much mana for that. They are too spread.
After making sure the monsters are appearing more to the north I go back to where the army was. A few minutes later Sophia approaches me after cleaning a lot of monsters.
“I will not even gonna ask how you managed to get here so fast but we have a problem.” She shouts as it's kinda hard to hear anything in the place we are right now.
“Yeah, these things just keep reappearing.” I shout back.
“Follow me.” She says as she begins to run back to the army. I quickly follow her.
As we reach the big circle we go deeper, toward the middle to where the mages are. Some of them are healing the few injured, others are helping the fight and the group we are approaching is in some kind of discussion.
“Lady Sophia! We haven't found anything yet.” The oldest man there says. He is probably 60 years old at least. He is bald but has thick white eyebrows along with a somewhat lengthy beard reaching his chest.
“I know. I want you to fill her in on what you said to me before and give her orders. She is the most mobile person we have here.”
“Who’s this?” I ask Sophia.
“He is our temporary general. I would say his name but legally he shouldn’t even be here.”
“Why can’t an old man retire in peace? And you must be that fiery lady that everyone talks about. I never expect to see someone in a dress in the battlefield outside the books.”
“If you want I can go fight naked. That will probably boost the morale of the soldiers.” I jokingly say.
Almost everyone there besides the old man, who just laughs, gives me a look of surprise.
“Let’s leave that as a last resort. You may go now Sophia.” The old man says to Sophia. She salutes and leaves.
“So, what is going on?”
“Your guess is as good as ours. We have a few theories but no one that can test them.” The old man explained to me.
“The most we manage to figure out is that those things the people are fighting are actually just a spell.” One of the other mages there says.
“Care to explain?”
“There are a few more areas around the kingdom where these creatures appeared. If you concentrate enough you will be able to feel that every single creature has exactly the same mana signature no matter its size. One of the guys who isn’t here confirmed that for us.” The same mage explains.
“Ok. So what do you need me for? Deliver stuff?”
“No, that would be too easy. I saw that you can fly really fast to my surprise. I need you to take this and find the rune maintaining this spell.” The old man says as he hands me a crystal pendulum.
“What do I do with this?”
“This pendulum can find the origin of a spell once it dissipates but there are various problems.”
“What problems?”
“It’s easier to read the report, here take it.” The old man says as he gives me two paper sheets that I hastily read.
In summary, the mages think that the place where the rune is and where these monsters are appearing are connected but they are very distant from one another. When a monster is killed the mana on it seems to go back to somewhere and almost instantly reappear a few hundred meters away from where it last was as a new monster.
“Any reason why anyone until now began searching using this thing?”
“It breaks after an hour or so and as far as we know, the rune might be anywhere in the kingdom. Also we only have two of those things, at least for our group.”
“How do I use it?”
“Put some mana on it, it will swing a few times and begin to point in a direction. You just have to follow it.”
“I can do that.”
“I hope so. Not many people are putting much faith in you.” The old man says as he looks around. I can feel that a lot of people around me are not very happy with me being tasked for this mission. Not that I care, I wouldn’t even be here if the city wasn’t in danger.
Following his instructions I fly as high as I can, almost touching the clouds, swing the pendulum until it locks in a direction, which in this case was north, and begin to fly in that direction as fast as I can. I hope the sonic boom didn’t reach the ground.
As I fly I pass over a few small villages and cities. Anyone seeing me from below must think I am a shooting star or a meteor. While flying I have a lot of things on my mind, like what is all of this acomplinishing, who would have the power, time and will to do all of this and why now? But before I can seriously start to ponder these questions the pendulum suddenly changes direction to the east. I make a sharp turn and begin to follow the pendulum once again. For several minutes I go in every direction until the pendulum finally locks to one direction again without changing. I have no idea how many cities I passed over as I was too focused on following the pendulum.
I begin to slow down as I believe I reached my objective. In front of me there is a giant crow, as big as a house, with a person on its back. It also looks like he has four legs. The crow is not flapping its wings to stay afloat, it's probably in the air using magic.
I approach the giant crow as it doesn’t seem to be hostile and I manage to take a look at the person on its back in more detail. It's a man, he is using a robe that looks to be made entirely out of black feathers.covering his entire body. Can’t see the details on his face.
“Someone finally came.” I hear a voice in my head say.
“Are you the crow or the nut job on its back?” I ask out loud.
“We are one in the same. We ask, why are you here?” In a more serious tone.
“You are the origin of those monsters appearing everywhere. I have to stop you.”
“You may burn me with your fire, cut me with your blades, but until I am whole again I will just reappear.”
“... Explain!” I shout.
“They divided us, our pieces are trying to reunite but your kingdom won't let us.”
“Just fly there and pick your pieces then.”
“We don’t want to.”
“You son a bitch. Then just die!” I say angrily. I tried to do things the peaceful way but if that's how it is, fuck’em.
Since this thing says he is immortal, let’s see how he deals with a fire that can burn anything. The pendulum is 100% pointing at him so he is the origin, my guess is that inside of his body there is a rune of some sort.
I stay in front of him and begin to create a flame. This flame is a flame that will burn everything I command to, it will consume what I want and only that. It will engulf this beast, burn its feathers, its meat if it has any, its bones if it has any, will consume its mana to grow and burn anything attached to what it's burning, be it spell, souls, feelings, etc…
I make this image clear in my mind, this is the only thing in my mind, the spell that is keeping me in the air isn’t necessary, nor is breathing, now I exist solely to make this flame exist.
“Hell Fire.” I say with the last of my breath as I begin to fall down after touching the crow with the flame.
It consumed a lot of mana. I can say I am already halfway through my mana already.
“What have you done!? How can you create something like this? I will kill you and then all humans!” I hear the crow shouting in my head. This is enough to make me snap out of my trance, breath and begin to fly again.
I take some distance and begin to observe the situation. The crow is completely on fire and trying to extinguish it by flapping its wings but little by little I can see that he is being turned into ashes.
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After several seconds of this I begin to feel a lot of mana coming my way. I go down to the ground. There is a very thick forest all around me, no cities in sight and even a small mountain on the horizon. I can feel the mana coming from every direction so having something to take the hit might help a little.
Not even a minute later I can see what I can only describe as a black laser passes through the sky and hits the crow. Soon after I begin to see others. I try to interact with them by shooting them down with fire, lightning, stone, a tree, even try to cut them but they are not being affected by anything. I could try to absorb the energy but I get a really bad feeling from it.
With nothing else I can do I wait, hoping that whatever comes of this isn’t something I can’t handle.
Several minutes later things finally stop and all the energy along with the crow begins to shape into something else.I fly up closer to see exactly what is going on.
What was once the crow is completely gone and now only the man remains. The man is not that taller than me. His skin is pale and his muscles compact. He has feathers covering his entire lower body along with both of his hands. On his back there is a pair of black wings, like those of the crow, twice his size.
After a brief moment of this metamorphosis he opens his eyes and his face takes shape. His face is almost all bones with the look of hunger. He is looking at me like I am the tastiest piece of meat he ever saw and he hasn’t eaten in a week. He also doesn’t look to be on fire anymore.
“I am going to ask this one last time since this is bound to get out of hand if we fight. Can’t you just leave?” Any sane person would scream in panic at me asking why I am giving the opponent a chance to escape instead of attacking. The reason is simple. Because if given the chance to not fight, I would take it. I hope people are at least as smart as me and see that fighting might not be the better option, even if there is no chance they are.
“It’s all your fault! LOOK AT ME! I AM UGLY BECAUSE OF YOU!” The now feathery man shouts angrily in my general direction with a voice that is a mixture of a man with a very sore throat and a bird that can imitate humans imitating that man at the same time.
“As far as I am aware, I am not your mother.” I calmly say. The creature immediately dashes towards me.
I use Mira to block his shoulder tackle and try to cut him using Yin and Yang that are being held by my magic string but as soon as we collide, this monster or whatever it is, dashed backwards before my blades made contact with him.
I take another moment to analyze the situation and note that even though I can’t see him burning, he is. I can faintly feel the fire I created inside him. My best guess is that he is regenerating himself using his mana. If this is true, not fighting him might be the best strategy right now.
I drop down to the ground as quickly as I can, the monster follows soon after. I gracefully reach the ground while he skybomb, making a sizable clearing in the forest.
“You and the ground look very good together” I taunt him. He just gives me a very mean look back before dashing towards me again.
“Come on, let’s talk this out like adults. I bet even you can do it.” I say condescendly as I guard myself again with Mira. This time he doesn’t retreat and I manage to stab him in the ribs with Yin and Yang. No blood comes out and as soon as I pull back the blades the hole in his body closes as if nothing happened.
“You look empty. Did you drop your insides somewhere?” I taunt him again as I manage to push him back.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Can’t you shut up!?” He angrily shouts at me.
“Why? Don’t you want to hear my lovely voice? Hmm” I say, doing my best to make a femme fatale face.
He doesn’t respond and tries to attack again. This time he goes to my side. If not for the distance between us I would not have time to guard again. After a few moments I push him back again. Looks like he isn’t stronger than me. He is faster, that's for sure, but I am physically stronger, which is a little strange. I am in no way stronger than a man and just looking at his physique he should be stronger than me. I hope he isn’t holding back to catch me by surprise. He also said something about being ugly, maybe that is his way of saying he is weaker?
With that in mind I take the offensive. I fly forward, since there is no way I will be able to keep up with his speed on foot, and fake a downward slash that he promptly dodge to my right all while I get Yin and Yang on my hands.
Seeing me open he takes his chance and dash towards me with his claws ready, to him I must be completely open as I don’t have my guard up in any shape or form, but as soon as he thinks he touched me I can see confusion on his face. He passes straight through me as if I wasn’t there. Phasing is working so far.
He quickly turns around and tries to slash me but I stop the phasing and make contact with him with my fists while holding Yin and Yang. This freezes him for a second.
“Short Circuit!” I shout as I discharge electricity on him.
There is something really wrong with the body of this thing. My spell is feeding on him and lightning is forming around him and not in a way that would be beneficial to him. There is literary lightning forming from him and striking him moments later.
“GWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” he shouts as he falls to the ground. A few moments later his body vanishes, not leaving even ashes behind.
“This was too easy…” I say to myself in a brief moment before I feel something touching the back of my neck. For a split second I am in full panic mode, I use way more mana than I should and make my whole body intangible. A knife flies through it hitting a tree in front of me.
I turn around to see two humanoid figures. One of them is with a few other knives in hand while the other is just watching from what I can see.
“Hello?” I cautiously say.
“Shit! What do we do?” I hear one of them say. Can’t really tell if it's a man or woman.
“It's your mission, I am only here to observe.” The other one says, this one I can clearly identify as a male voice. A deep one at that.
“Look, I was only here to kill that thing.” I say as I prepare for the worse.
“I can’t let you tell people that we were here.” The one I can’t identify says.
“I can’t even tell your appearance, let alone who you are.”
“We are the great Assassin Squad of The Demon King. I can’t let you inform your people that we are here.” The first one says proudly.
“Argh!” I hear from the man as he facepalms. The shame and disappointment is testable in the air.
“What do you even do?” I ask, seeing that we have a big mouth over here.
“We are…” The first one tries to say.
“Enough!” The man says in a strong voice.
“Give some credit to your junior. He almost killed me.” I say as I begin to approach them.
“You idiot, kill her!” The man shouts at the other one who promptly dashes towards me.
My phasing has stopped so we clash. This person is using a short sword. I say person because all I can see is a black blob in the shape of a person. It doesn’t look like clothing, so maybe a spell.
We trade a few blows that for some reason the person in front of me is trying to overpower. I even manage to cut it a few times with Yin and Yang since he isn’t trying to dodge or parry those. I confirm that it's a spell as a few pieces of clothes and blood drop on the ground after I hit him without his blob-like texture changing.
“So, what is the story with the crow?” I ask as I prepare myself.
“He is a traitor!” The person fighting me explains as I see him preparing what I believe is a spell.
I put a barrier around me and moments later I can see something burning as it hits the barrier. The projectiles, whatever they are, either came too fast or were invisible.
I think my opponent was surprised when this happened since he stopped. I take the moment and fly forward, slashing him from above and both sides using all my swords.
“Fuck!” I hear my enemy say as all three hit him but to my surprise all that happens is that he is pushed back a few meters.
“Great, now I have to take part in this.” I hear the man saying as he appears on the side of the other one. The thing covering both of them vanishes, revealing their form to me.
They are both demons, that is for sure, both of them have animal characteristics, both tigers to my surprise. They are both the same size, which is a little shorter than me, but the man is as bulk as a physiculturist while the other one is slim with some muscle.
The big one isn’t using a shirt so I can see his muscles. He is using some baggy black pants with black leather boots that go up to his knees. His fur is stripped, black and white, his fingernails make his hands claws, his face is that of a tiger. If not for his eyes and overall aura, you wouldn’t think he is a demon.
The other one, also a man, is similar to the bulk one, just orange, skinnier and with a black blouse.
“Any chance we can talk this out?” I ask.
“No!” The bulk one says with conviction before dashing towards me.
—---------
“FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCKING FUCK!” I shout to the skies. It took a total of 5 minutes for them to eat my mana away.
Somehow, working together makes them way stronger, so much they just ignore any barrier I put up. They were and are tackling, slashing and even biting me from every direction so fast its leaving marks on the ground. I am burning mana like a mad woman phasing myself out of letal hits and using more mana to power Mira so I can actually parry the bulk one when necessary.
Phase legs, head, feet, head again, shoulder, privates, left arm, parry, kick the skinnier one, clash with the claws of the bulkier one, phase head, knees,... Oh fuck, I am out almost out of mana.
“Took more time than expected, just accept your death.” The bulk one says to me while both of them begin to encircle me.
“That is one of the few things that I can’t.” I say as I try to show some confidence.
They don’t even bother to answer and dash towards me at the same time. I use phasing again with the last of my mana and try to slash them only managing to graze them.
Well I guess I will finally find out what happens when I completely run out of mana. The first thing I notice is that I can’t move my magic string so It recoils and fixes on my body dropping Yin and Yang on the ground. Then Mira gets too heavy to be held like a short sword so I move it to my shoulders.
“Hah! She ran out of mana.” The skinner one says to the bigger one.
“That is to be expected, now go do your job.” The bulkier one says.
The skinnier one begins to walk towards me with his guard wide open and I can’t do anything but watch as now I am starting to lose control of my muscles.
“Any last wish?” The skinnier one says with a grin on his face.
Think woman, think! Anything to give you more time, anything. Brain, do your work and keep me alive.
“Can you fuck me?” I ask to the surprise of all of us, including me.
“Sure!?” The skinny one says.
“Just kill her already!” The bulkier one says, clearly annoyed.
“If you want her dead then do it yourself!” the skinny one shouts back.
“I will not have blood on myself for a week just because you want.”
“You should have kept your shirt then.”
“And whose fault is it?”
Yes, continue to argue. Give me time, give me… well fuck, now I can’t see anything. Now I can’t hear anything. Is that my soul? Why am I seeing my soul? Buddy, why are you trying to move? Stay in my body… I think my body is shutting down and I am getting crazy, I am talking too much with myself trying to stay conscious, ain’t I? Come on brain, I am alive, do something.
As I keep drawing blanks in my mind I notice that I can’t perceive time anymore. Maybe I am cold on the floor… I am calmer than I expected to be. Why is my soul pumping? Why is it breaking apart? I need you whole to go to the afterlife! Wait, why am I thinking of the afterlife? I can probably become a ghost and go back, can’t I?
“Stop please” I say to myself as a piece of my soul leaves and disappears. Come on, anything, I must be at least a little alive as no one is here to greet me in this black void, there has to be something I can do.
“FUCK! CAN SOMEONE AT LEAST COME HERE AND GET MY SOUL BEFORE IT VANISHES!?” I shout at nothing as more and more pieces of my soul begin to fall off and vanish. Isn’t there a death god that should have come for me already?
“WHY AM I SO FUCKING ANGRY!?” I should be full of regret right now but the only thing I can feel is absolute anger at the fact that I am seeing my soul vanish before me.
“THE LAST FUCKING PIECE! GO FUCK YOURSELF! GO AHEAD, VANISH, MAKE MY DAY!” I shout at the last piece of my soul, not bigger than the spark of a small firematch.
“Why are you so angry at your own soul owner?” Mira asks me.
“ITS ONLY JOB WAS TO BE THERE AND IT'S NOT ABLE TO DO EVEN IT!”
“But it is still there, ain’t it?”
“AND ONLY THE GODS KNOW WHAT I LOST ON ALL OF IT!”
“As far as I can tell you lost nothing.”
“MIRA, I KNOW THAT YOU ARE A SWORD BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE THAT FUCKING DUMB. THE SOUL LITERALLY IS WHAT I AM. IF I DON’T HAVE MY ENTIRE SOUL I DON’T HAVE MY ENTIRE SELF!”
“But that is your entire soul.”
“MIRA, WE WERE TOGETHER FOR MOST OF MY ENTIRE LIFE HERE. I SAW MY SOUL MORE THAN ONCE. THAT THING IS NOT MY ENTIRE SOUL AND YOU SHOULD KNOW IT!”
“But…”
“AND HOW IN THE FUCK I CAN ACTUALLY HEAR WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING? HELL, HOW ARE YOU SPEAKING AND WHY DO YOU HAVE A FAMILIAR VOICE?”
“I could always speak. Didn’t you talk with me before?”
“MIRA, I LOVE YOU BUT FOR FUCKS SAKE, SWORDS DON’T HAVE THE ABILITY TO TALK. I COULD UNDERSTAND YOU, HEARING YOU IS ANOTHER THING ENTIRELY!”
“Then how are we talking now?”
“GIRL, I AM DYING IF YOU DIDN’T NOTICE AND YOU PROBABLY SOME SORT OF HALLUCINATION TRYING TO MAKE ME CLING FOR MY LIFE A LITTLE MORE!”
“No, I am real!”
“YOU SHUT UP. AND YOU, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. I DON’T WANT TO BE ANGRY, YOU JUST HAD TO HOLD TOGETHER FOR A FEW MINUTES AND I COULD PROBABLY DIE WITH REGRETS, MAYBE A LITTLE HAPPINESS THAT I ACTUALLY DIED TO PEOPLE THAT KNOW TO FIGHT, BUT NOOO, YOU HAD TO START TO FALL APART AND MAKE ME ANGRY YOU PIECE OF SHIT SOUL!”
“Master…” Mira tries to say something but I am having none of it.
“COME ON YOU PIECE OF SHIT. YOU WERE MADE OF THE SOUL OF TWO PEOPLE AND NOW LOOK AT YOU. FALL APART SO I CAN AT LEAST TASTE OBLIVION IN PIECE OR DO SOMETHING!”
“MASTER!” Mira shouts at me.
“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I shout uncontrollably angrily at the last piece of my soul before it disappears.