Chapter 7
Weakness. A sensation that Sebastian was not familiar with. He was more accustomed to dealing with his limited strength and struggling to avoid breaking things. Now even lifting his limbs and turning his head was difficult. After turning himself over to tune out Hannah, his energy to do much more was gone, but after she had left he found that it wasn't so bad. This was the most peace he had seen in a long time.
How Hannah had managed to find him was still unknown to the raven demon. She was affiliated with that spider demon, Claude Faustus. Did they want something from him? Likely not. Claude might not have liked him, but he wouldn't go out of his way to track him down for no reason.
The more his life began to flow out of him, the thicker the grass around him grew, the bigger the trees got, and the more life began to appear around him. Souls even took the form of animals. Blue, red, purple butterflies – insects of unusual and unnatural colors - fluttered about. Black wolves would trot passed him, acknowledging his presents with a brief sniff before moving along. Deer with pure White fur came and went, occasionally stopping beside him as if to comfort him.
There were prominent differences between animals that had come from elsewhere and animals that had taken form from the countless souls he had consumed. Whether it was an unusual type of fur or an unnatural color, the difference is always very prominent. And they were comforting. Most would expect souls that had been consumed by demon to use their first window of opportunity to escape wisely; going far away and never to return to that horrible fate. But these souls had been with him throughout his long and idle life, and that was a period so long that the demon was now the only thing they knew.
'Hush'
A breeze stirred the air, and the fake can't appease of the trees began to rattle their Chris, green leaves. Sebastian listened in silence until he felt his eyes slowly drift closed.
"What do you mean, Sebastian's dying?"
Claude sat at his desk with his hands folded in front of him as Hannah broke the news on what she had found.
"It appears to be some sort of enchantment," the maid explained, "It's slowly draining his life-force, and that life force is being directed into the forest around him."
Claude was silent. This didn't mean bad news just for Ciel. It was bad for his own contract with Alois. His master had deemed that death was too good for that demon and he wanted Sebastian face a fate that was worse than death.
"Then this is a problem," he said, "We need to find a way to reverse the enchantment, because if Michaelis dies, our master will have our heads."
Hannah frowned, "Claude, exactly how are we expected to reverse the enchantment? Michaelis could've said it to be any number of things."
Claude rose from his desk, "I'll get to the bottom of this. The only way to find the reversal is to go to the deal that spawned the enchantment."
"Meaning, you're going to Satan."
"Yes."
"I'll go, too,"
"No, Hannah. I need you to stay here and take care of the young master and our guest. I can handle Satan by myself."
"And what if Satan won't reveal what reverses the enchantment? What then?"
Claude shot her and unreadable look.
"Then we might as well come right out to Alois and say the contract can't be completed, and tell Ciel he's no longer in a contract. Because Sebastian is going to die in a short amount of time, if he isn't dead yet. There will be no saving Sebastian if we can't find a way to reverse that enchantment."