Magilou let out a sigh, after receiving nothing but silence from her little threat. "I suppose you'll never understand." She let out a harrumph. "People can be so tragically unlearned…" For some reason, she decided to say the last two syllables of the last word she spoke out loud. "But hey, like I care~" she sang and left the trio consisting of Velvet, Seres and the still to be named boy to their own devices. Said boy looked after the supposed witch with a frown but didn't do anything to stop her from going.
Wordlessly Velvet left the area, with Seres and the boy following her. For some reason, the black-haired daemon decided to inspect a nearby room, which turned out to be a small quarter for the local guards. A couple of beds were lined up against the walls, a couple of tables with lit candles were standing around, a chair had been thrown over in a hurry, plus there was a lot of junk lying around. The only thing that was really valuable was surprisingly a plant inside a pot. The blue-haired boy inspected the plant a little bit in his hands until Seres came walking up from behind him.
"An herb?" she wondered aloud. "I'm surprised the guards managed to successfully cultivate this plant on this island. It could prove useful later on." Although the boy had no idea what exactly the herb was useful for, he trusted the red-haired woman with her statement and carefully put the plant away in the bag he was carrying. After the trio exited the room, Velvet began to mumble to herself about Magilou.
"I can't believe that girl snuck up on me." It sounded like she was chiding herself for not noticing the blonde earlier. "Who is she?"
"This is no ordinary prison," Seres explained. "We must be cautious. Trust no one." With her last words, she looked over to their blue-haired companion, who appeared to be busy unraveling some kind of black string to which his silver accessory was attached to. "She said she's a powerful witch." Seres returned her attention to Velvet.
"Did she have a Malak tethered?" the daemon asked.
"No," Seres shook her head "I didn't sense Malakhim around her. She's an ordinary human… I think." The red-haired Malak didn't sound so sure of herself. Nevertheless, Velvet took her words to heart.
"Then she's an ordinary magician, not a witch," the daemon concluded. "If she tries to trick me again, I'll crush her and be done with it." With that being said the trio continued their ascend through the prison, getting higher and higher. As they arrived on the next floor, they were greeted by the sound of swords clashing against each other. The trio halted for a minute, before following the sounds. As they came across a corner, they were greeted by an exorcist flying right in front of him. He landed unceremoniously on the ground and didn't get up. Judging by the number of wounds he had received, he probably died before he even hit the ground. Turning the corner, the three were greeted by a truly gruesome sight. Daemons and exorcists alike were lying on the ground, dead, evidence of a recent battle all over their corpses. The ground was painted red from blood, entire limbs had been cut off the original bodies and only one man was left standing in the middle of this massacre. He wore what appeared like traditional Japanese clothing in the colors red, violet and white. His black hair was messy and tied in a ponytail. Instead of shoes, he wore sandals.
"More?" the man scoffed and turned around. One of his eyes was covered by his black hair, similar to how the young man with the blue hair had covered his. However, for the briefest of moments, his eye could be seen, as it glowed red, before disappearing.
"This one… he's a daemon!" Seres warned her companions. Directly after the proclamation, the daemon man drew out two short knives and took on a battle stands. While he was motioning his body, his hair flew a little to the side, revealing some kind of black and red corruption around his covered eye.
"Get ready!" Velvet exclaimed as the other daemon was already rushing towards the trio. The female daemon met him halfway and their blades clashed. Both jumped backward at the same time, before reengaging. Velvet's opponent unleashed a flurry of strikes and she immediately countered it with her footwork. Apparently, the daemon woman had a hidden blade inside her new boot. With it, she somehow managed to parry each and every swing of the enemy's arms.
"You're not human," the daemon man proclaimed.
"Neither are you," Velvet replied calmly, before swinging her main blade, which was however blocked by one knife of the enemy. At the same time, the man thrust forwards his other knife, but couldn't hit Velvet, as she dodged to the side.
"Hehe, true enough," the daemon man acknowledged and attacked again. He jumped forward, did a roll in the air and then used the momentum to strike at Velvet. However, it appeared as if the man had forgotten about Seres, who blasted the man out of the sky with a simple fireball. The enemy daemon groaned in pain but managed to land on his feet. Before the samurai man could fully take on his battle stands, the blue-haired boy was suddenly in front of him and swung his blade. The black haired interrupted the attack by kicking the boy in the stomach. The boy bent over and his swing missed completely. Seeing his chance, the samurai attacked with both of his blades, but both swings were surprisingly parried by the blue-haired boy. He recovered faster than the samurai anticipated. The man decided to distance himself for the moment and jumped backward.
However, Velvet was already on his case. The daemon woman jumped upwards and struck down with her blades. The enemy daemon managed to parry the attack just in time. Both daemons jumped backward and eyed each other. The blue-haired boy stood right next to Velvet, while Seres glared at the samurai from behind the two.
"He's strong," Velvet commented. Her blue-haired companion rushed forwards, summoning the eldritch glow to his sword. If the daemon samurai was fazed by this, he didn't show it. Instead, he opted to dodge the incoming swing by jumping forward of all things. Taken off guard, the blue haired boy faltered, only to be pushed to the ground. The daemon, however, couldn't capitalize on his advantage, as the boy used his legs to push the daemon off again.
As the daemon landed on the ground, the boy got back up, seemingly uninjured. At this moment, the daemon eyed his blade and scoffed.
"Chips in the blades already? Brittle, these exorcist knives. I've got to reclaim Stormhowl."
At the mention of the masterpiece sword, the blue-haired boy found himself once again faltering.
"Stormhowl?" Velvet repeated. "That sword we found?"
Up until now, the face of the daemon had been hard. But as soon as Velvet mentioned the sword, it softened up. Having forgotten the battle completely, the man dropped his knifes, ran past Minato and up to Velvet.
"You found it?!" he asked in excitement. "Where? Do you have it? Please, tell me!" The daemon shook Velvet like a child wanting to get his mother to play with him.
"It's in the storage room… Down below." The daemon woman was looking at her fellow daemon with wide eyes, completely taken off guard with his behavior.
"Down below? You have my thanks!"
And he was gone.
The trio looked after him for a brief moment. "He's an odd daemon," Velvet commented, before going ahead. "If things settle down, we'll miss our opportunity. Hurry," she urged the other two. Seres followed her without a word, yet the blue-haired boy opted to stay behind for just a moment longer. He looked down at all the corpses of both humans and daemons, before sighing.
("What is with this world?") he silently wondered to himself, before following the two women. He managed to catch up just in time to hear Seres making a commented as to how odd the prisoners were on this island, only for Velvet to give her an offended look.
"Ah, except for you of course."
"Forget it," the daemon woman waved off. "Like I care what a Malak thinks of me."
Their escape continued on. They met no guards on the way, unsurprising, as they were probably still working on getting the other prisoners in line. What they did meet was a pair of daemons, that basically looked like anthropomorphic pig men. They wore some old, shaggy clothing and were equipped with large wooden hammers. They were using said hammers, trying to open a closed door.
"Orcs, not the brightest of daemons, but they make up for it with their physical strength," Seres informed the other two.
"Let's leave them be. They might distract the guards." Velvet hurried on towards the entrance of the tower they had been looking for. Like little ducklings, the other two followed with Seres closing the door behind them. Just as they were about to climb up a nearby ladder, they heard the sounds of screaming and clashing of weapons on the other side, along with the oinking of pigs.
"The prisoners are doomed," Seres stated as a matter of fact. The boy looked at the door he just closed and let out yet another sigh.
"Time is short. We need to get down to the path," Velvet proclaimed and began climbing the ladder. Seres followed her, with the blue-haired boy, albeit he did it reluctantly. Once they reached the top, the three found themselves outside, on top of the tower. It was the first time in three years that Velvet was able to take in a deep breath of fresh air. Sadly, it wasn't that different from the air of her cell, mostly because there was a heavy storm raging outside. Seres and the boy followed her immediately, their clothes getting soaked in a matter of seconds. The three walked towards the edge of the tower but found an unpleasant surprise waiting for them.
"The path has collapsed. That rope won't do any good here."
The blue-haired boy let out a "tch", as he looked down. There was no way any of them would survive a fall like that. He walked to another part of the tower and looked down there. However what he saw didn't exactly raise his spirits. For down below, where the tower was facing the ocean, there were rock formations sticking out of the water. Seres walked up right next to him and followed his gaze.
"Even without the rocks, it would be suicide to jump down into the raging water like this," Seres told him, to which the blue-haired boy reluctantly nodded. A sudden unknown sound got both of their attention. The boy gasped when he saw that Velvet's previously bandaged arm had now transformed into a red and black pulsating claw.
"Wait, you're not seriously going to try it, are you?" Seres asked in surprise.
"He fell further than this back at the shrine." And with that cryptic message, Velvet jumped off the cliff, vanishing from view. The boy and the red-haired woman gasped and ran towards where Velvet had jumped off. They arrived just in time to see her sliding down a cliff and landing uncomfortably on the ground. To both of their surprise, she immediately managed to get back up again.
"She is truly committed to this," Seres noted and turned her attention to the boy. "I guess this is where we part ways. Farewell." And before the blue haired boy could even do as much as comprehend the words the woman had said, she disappeared into a flash of fire. The blue haired boy flinched and involuntarily took a step backward until the flames died down. It took him a minute to realize that he had been left behind out of convenience, but when it clicked in his brain, he looked angrily at the ground and kicked a nearby rock away.
("Damn it!") he thought to himself while keeping his stoic visage on the outside. ("This was my only chance to get out of here. Okay Minato, calm down.") he told himself. ("Consider your options. I cannot jump down the tower, I wouldn't survive it. The logical conclusion would be to go through the prison, but then I would have to face the guards. Not to mention, I don't know my way around here. I won't make it in time!")
Minato walked over the trap door, leading down inside the tower. ("Standing around here in the rain won't do me any good. I need to get a move on. I just might be able to overpower the guards with my-") Just then Minato's train of thought suddenly halted, as a new idea appeared inside his mind as fast as a lightning bolt.
("Will that really work? I have never tried using my power like this, but in theory, he should be able to hold me, right?")
XXX
Velvet and Seres in the meantime found themselves in a bind. Their opponent Praetor Oscar of the Abbey and his two Malakhim proved to be formidable opponents to the Malakh and the daemon. Yet at the same time, the Praetor found himself in the same position. He expected harsh resistance from Seres, given that she had been Lord Artorius' Malak, but the daemon proved to be just as strong and versatile.
"..You're strong," he reluctantly praised. "I will have to expend a Malak or two for this." His Malakhim knew exactly what he was talking about and didn't need any more orders from him. One dropped his weapon and ran up to the "graceless daemon", holding her in place. Of course, the daemon struggled, but this was where the second Malak came in. He shot an arte directly at the daemon, which would kill her and the Malakhim holding her. However, she managed to break free in time and with a series of kicks she got the Malak in the path of the incoming arte, causing him to get hit, instead of the daemon. The Malak screamed in agony, as the arte took a toll on his body.
"What are you doing?!" Seres screamed in shock.
"Control your emotions to control the tide of battle!" Oscar said as he charged at Velvet. She recognized those words only all too well. It was one of Artorius' so-called Maximes with which he taught her to fight with her sword. She guessed he used those same Maximes nowadays to train his underlings.
The strike came in fast, but not fast enough for Velvet to not being able to block it. She and Oscar were interlocked for a second and a half before they both jumped back a couple of meters.
"More of your vaunted 'reason'?" the daemon asked, before taking the offensive. She tried to pierce the human with her blade, but her attack was parried. Not losing any momentum, she slashed with her foot blade, followed by her gauntlet blade, but Oscar managed to sidestep her. He dodged a couple of more swings, waiting for an opening. But it didn't came, as the daemon attacked relentlessly. He was forced to go on the full defensive with his blade and at least managed to get her to a standstill with him once again. As both daemon and human pushed each other back and forth, a sudden scream interrupted their power struggle. Both once again jumped away and looked at the source of the noise, which turned out to be the Malak, who got hit by the arte earlier. A dark purple and black aura was surrounding him and he was holding his head as if he was trying to rip it off.
"No!" Seres screamed, realizing what was about to happen. The energy around the Malak intensified and turned into a swirling vortex. His voice became distorted and took on a deeper tone. In a matter of moments, the energy disappeared, revealing a big, red scaled dragon.
"A Malak… with daemonblight?!" Velvet asked in disbelief, as this was something completely new to her.
"Ungh! It's lost control," Oscar realized, anything but happy with the sudden turn of events.
The dragon hovered in the air and let out a roar. It was loud enough to make everyone cringe. As they all recovered, the dragon turned towards Oscar and his second Malak and without warning, attacked the two, by creating a gigantic gust of wind. The dragon used its giant wings in order to pull the attack off. The Praetor and his Malak were slammed against a nearby wall, upon impact, both were seemingly knocked out.
Having disposed one threat, the dragon turned its attention to Velvet. From the way it moved its body, it looked like it wanted to charge straight at her. Just as the beast was about to do so, the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the room, which was followed by a shout from an unknown voice.
"ORPHEUS!"
Blue mist appeared right next to the dragon, getting the attention of the red-scaled beast. Out of instinct, it flew backward.
"What the-?!" Velvet couldn't finish the sentence as a large, humanoid figure appeared out of the mist. It had a metallic body, silver hair, a black face and wore a gigantic lyre on its back. As human as the figure appeared to be, it was deformed in several places and wore a red scarf. The dragon roared at the figure and prepared to attack. Before the former Malakhim could strike at the figure, it grabbed it's lyre and played a harsh tune. A fireball escaped the lyre and flew directly at the dragon's face it screamed in pain, waving its head back and forth, hitting the walls as it did so. It landed on the ground with smoke still coming off its face.
"What is that?!" Velvet asked in shock and awe. "Wait, the boy?!" She just spotted the blue-haired boy standing underneath the figure. He had one of his artifacts, Velvet didn't even know where she should begin to describe that thing and was holding it against his head.
"Is he… related to it?" Seres asked, her gaze switching between the boy and the thing above him.
The metallic, humanoid figure put it's lyre back on its back and began to speak.
"I am thou."
Oscar managed to get on his knees at this point and managed to watch the spectacle. "Ungh. What is happening?" he wondered aloud, as his vision was still clearing up.
"Thou art I." The figure continued to speak. It's voice was elegant and awe inspiring at the same time.
"From the sea of thy soul, I cometh."
"The sea of his… soul?" Seres repeated.
"I am Orpheus!" the now dubbed Orpheus proclaimed, taking his lyre in both of his hands.
"The master of strings!" He finished and struck the dragon directly on the head. The dazed creature barely saw it coming, but it was too late. The gigantic lyre connected to the dragon's head and slammed it into the ground, creating a crater of the size of said head. Orpheus then disappeared, leaving the blue-haired boy behind. Said boy had his sword ready and took on his battle stand.
Seres was still caught up in awe of the display, but Velvet managed to catch herself rather quickly. She knew they had to get rid of that dragon as quickly as possible if they wanted to get off the island safely. And now was the perfect chance to strike, namely while the dragon was still recovering from the blows it had received.
Sprinting forward, the daemon decided it was time to honor her new race and activated her daemon arm.
"Take that! Devour!" she screamed and slashed the dragon with her daemon arm. As she did this, she could feel a small portion of energy filling her. Basically what she had done was to not only injure the dragon, but she also took a part of his life essence and ate it at the same time. She had discovered this ability while feeding on the various prisoners. The essence not only replenished her own energy but granted her some extra strength for a limited amount of time. And she was going to use that time to the fullest extent.
"Searing Edge!" she screamed, using her hidden fire-arte and unleashed a series of kicks and slashes upon the downed dragon. The blue-haired boy attacked as well, using his sword in order to cut through the scales. Seres in the meantime had managed to catch herself and was shooting her fire artes at the dragon.
Of course, the daemon wouldn't just take the beating. In an effort to kill its opponents quickly, it opened its mouth and unleashed a torrent of fire. Velvet and Minato were both forced to get the hell out of the way, else they risked to be turned into crispy chicken. And although Seres continued with her assault of artes, the dragon managed to get airborne again, looking none too happy.
It tried to slash Minato with its claws, but there was one more thing Velvet could do with the power she absorbed from the dragon. Channeling this power into her arm, she unleashed a powerful arte upon the dragon.
"Phalanx Raid!" she screamed. Dark violet and black spikes erupted from out of the ground and pierced through the dragon's softer, white belly. The beast screamed in pain, as blood immediately began to spill out of the open wounds, along with some dark energy escaping it.
"I underestimated her. She's stronger than I anticipated," Oscar realized. "And that boy, he can summon demons?! I've never seen such a thing!"
The dragon once again breathed fire, this time it was directly aimed at Velvet. Feeling the heat on her skin, she rolled out of the way. Her blade caught fire, as she unleashed her hidden arte once again, this time hitting the hind leg of the dragon. In reaction to the sudden pain, the tail of the creature lashed out and knocked Velvet away.
"First aid!" Seres screamed and healed Velvet immediately. Feeling the pain disappearing, the daemon managed to get off the ground immediately and charged at the dragon again. Said beast had in the meantime turned his attention to Minato and unleashed a strong wind upon the boy. Due to the distance, the boy only slid across the ground and didn't actually flew over it.
Having some distance between himself and the opponent, Minato grabbed his evoker, spun it as his hand approached his head (a bad habit of his) until the fake gun ended up pointing against his head. "Persona!" he shouted, pulling the trigger. Glass shards seeming got shot out of his head, a blue mist surrounded him and out of this mist, Orpheus appeared once again. The master of strings played his instrument and the dragon was once again engulfed in fire. Seres just so happened to follow this up, having charged up a particularly strong and large fireball. The flames engulfed the entirety of the beast, causing it to scream in pain even more. Seeing her chance, Velvet once again devoured a part of the dragon's life essence, strengthening the swings of her blade. Blood was spilled all over her, but she didn't care. Unleashing one more "Phalanx Raid", the wounds the dragon had received up until this point proved to be fatal, as it slammed to the ground and stopped moving entirely.
Seres found herself needing to catch her breath, after firing arte after arte. As such, she didn't see Oscar's remaining Malak casting a wind-arte on Velvet until it hit her. Minato and Seres both turned their attention to the Praetor, the former running right in front of Velvet in order to block a potential second projectile based attack.
"Apologies… but I can't let a nasty daemon like you roam free, now can I?" he asked sarcastically.
Minato tightened the grip on his sword, getting ready to fight the praetor. Seres did the same, already channeling the next arte.
"Velvet," the daemon woman suddenly spoke up. Minato and Seres turned around to see that Velvet had already recovered. "That's my name. Give Artorius my regards." She walked over to the corpse of the dragon, unleashed her daemon arm and slammed it on the head of the dragon. Both Minato and Oscar stared in shock as dark energy started to come out of the dragon and flowed into Velvet's arm as if she was eating the beast through said arm.
"My name is Velvet Crowe. And I will devour daemon, Malak, and exorcist alike," she proclaimed. The dragon disappeared in black mist, only leaving behind a pool of blood that it had lost during the fight. Velvet got up, her arm still that of a daemon and turned towards Oscar.
"I am a monster," she shouted, her face full of hatred. Suddenly she held up her daemon arm and a big fireball appeared in its palm. Minato cautiously walked a few steps away. "I AM A THERION!" This turned out to be a vice decision, as Velvet shot the fireball directly at the exorcist. Too stunned from the devouring display, Oscar didn't realize that he was in danger until it was too late. Like the dragon previously, his face was engulfed in flames. And just like the dragon, he screamed in pain, waving his arms around. His Malak quickly came to his aid and in a flash of light, both teleported out of the room to parts unknown. Minato silently wondered why the red-haired Malak hadn't done the same with him earlier.
Seres, Velvet, and Minato met in the middle of the room, the latter sheathing his sword.
"That is a rather intriguing ability you possess," Seres spoke directly to Minato. Although the blue haired boy could hear the suspicion in her voice, he still nodded in appreciation of the praise.
"We can talk later, we need to get a move on," Velvet told the other two and was about to take the lead again when suddenly the three heard a door opening. Expecting more exorcists, they drew their weapons, but were pleasantly surprised, when they spotted two familiar faces.
"Oho! Finally someplace that might not be a death-trap!" Magilou proclaimed in an over exaggerated voice. She and the samurai appeared from out of the door. "When we tumbled from the tower, I thought, this is it, Magilou, this is the end!" the self-proclaimed witch shouted.
"It would've been less risky if you hadn't suddenly appeared and jumped on my back," the daemon samurai complained at the witch.
Minato was sure, if this had been an anime, he would have sweatdropped. Then again, his life had pretty much become an anime a long time ago.
It was then that the duo noticed the trio. "Oh hey, it's you!" The samurai walked up to Velvet with the witch slowly following him. "It's thanks to you that Stormhowl is back in my care." The daemon slightly unsheathed the masterpiece, before putting it back.
"So he is…" Seres mumbled to herself.
The samurai bowed his head, before introducing himself. "Rokurou Rangetsu at your service. This blade is my life. I owe you a great debt, one I vow to repay."
Seres raised an eyebrow underneath her mask, knowing just how much this vow really meant.
"Yes, yes, she's a peach model citizen," the witch interrupted, sounding incredibly jumpy. "Can we get a move on? I think they're just about done massacring the rioters."
Minato would have smiled at the funny way Magilou said that sentence if it weren't for the fact that he was part of the reason all of those people were going to die. But since there was nothing he could do, he opted to stay silent for the time being.
While Velvet didn't think much of the girl in the jester outfit, she figured the more people they had on hand the better.
"The docks are just ahead. Give us a hand." With that being said, Velvet walked outside, followed closely by Magilou and Rokurou. Minato and Seres stayed behind, the latter looking towards where they came from.
"Are you having second thoughts?" Seres asked in a neutral tone. Minato turned around and glared with his visible eye at her.
"Since the very beginning," he told her and followed Velvet.