Author's Note: Only two reviews? I am sad. Thank you to those who did review. Escarlaje, for those who don't recall, is Malhavoc's artifact and is known for being able to cut magic in half.
The Story So Far: After swapping Ayla for Tsubasa, the group headed to Kurita's family's shrine, the last place their parents had been seen. There they found a fatally wounded Malhavoc (whom they managed to save) and freed Sakuraba from the curse Blake put on him.
Hidden
By: Bar-Ohki
Chapter 35: Escarlaje
"Now I will tell the lot of you what happened here." Malhavoc announced without missing a beat.
"You really killed them…." Ishimaru muttered, having been checking all the corpses for signs of life.
"Don't interrupt me and I will explain." Malhavoc glared in Ishimaru's direction. "The fact is I may no longer be dying but I am far from healthy. I can only see without blurs only a pace in front of me. My hearing is probably as bad as a human's…." Malhavoc sounded grave.
"Malhavoc!" Zork gasped, his eyes wide in fear.
"I had come here to deal with the other melfin that was created," Malhavoc began, "since the spell that caused the first one was a teleportation one, the place they teleported from was logically going to collapse into a melfin. While I was in the area I decided to stop by and trade some information."
"You came here to trade information?" Mamori stared at Malhavoc in disbelief.
"I'm giving you some right now free of charge." Malhavoc reminded her gruffly. "I was sure your parents wanted to know where their children were residing, so I charged them a small exchange and told them where the lot of you was. The other trade was with the two Elders who wanted to know your fate, Youichi."
"Tch."
"I cut my dealing short when I noticed the presence of a large force in the area. I managed to get myself into this courtyard when I was attacked." Malhavoc rubbed the back of his head a little. "These puppets didn't fall unconscious when I struck them blows hard enough to knock out a troll; I was left with no option but to kill them."
"What!?"
"There was 75 of them and one of me, the only way I was going to survive was if I managed to keep a defeated enemy from coming back up and returning to the fray. They managed to knock away my sword," Malhavoc pointed at the hilt sticking out of one of the pillars, "which forced me to use Escarlaje to defend myself."
"Wait…. Where are the other 25 corpses?" Juumonji looked around.
"You killed 75 people in self defense?!" Mamori squeaked.
Malhavoc rolled his eyes at the antics before him. "Allow me to finish before you start making idiotic conclusions."
The group fell into silence again.
"Escarlaje is a magic-cutting weapon," Malhavoc reminded them, "and as such it can cut the spells that kept the puppets under the Half-Fire Necromancer's control. Unfortunately when you cut a spell you can't be too sure what it's going to do after that. Frankly, spells are not designed to be cut and cutting them is very hazardous. On top of that I have no way of knowing what part of the spell I'm cutting."
"…It's amazing you haven't kill yourself doing that!" Tsubasa whispered.
"The wounds I got were not delivered by my opponents directly." Malhavoc admitted. "Every cut I received was from the collapsing and warping of the spells I cut."
"You mean you could have killed all 75 of these people and not have gotten hurt if you didn't use Escarlaje?!" Mamori gasped.
"Exactly." Malhavoc nodded once. "Now, the missing bodies are missing because they were vaporized by the spells' collapsing. A few others just burst into flame and left only a small bit of ash behind. And there was one that exploded."
"Is that what happened to this guy?" Kuroki pointed to a corpse that looked like something blew up inside it.
"Yes." Malhavoc nodded. "After I managed to kill the lot of them I was already fatally wounded. At that point the only thing I could manage was to keep the Necromancer from getting my body to reanimate."
"Reanimate?" Musashi asked.
"It's when a Necromancer uses magic to make a corpse move around again, like zombie." Yukimitsu explained.
"Only worse because I would be a puppet with intelligence." Malhavoc added. "And all the training and memories I've put into my body would be easily remembered."
"So all that skill you have as an assassin would have been at the fucker's disposal." Hiruma concluded with a frown.
"Yes, that's why I had to place protections so that my corpse would be safe from that." Malhavoc nodded. "I used the corner there and created a Blood Seal with Escarlaje as a Keystone."
"A Blood Seal?" Togano asked.
"He uses his blood as a physical medium to create a barrier around himself." Tsubasa explained. "And with the fact that you are an Escarmilen, it would have been extra effective."
"You can use Escarlaje as a Keystone?" Shin frowned, confused by this. Malhavoc held up the dagger and tapped the red jewel on it.
"That is a Keystone right there." Malhavoc explained. "And for those who don't know, a Keystone is a object placed specifically so that certain kinds of spells will hold together. Unfortunately, if a Keystone is removed or destroyed, the spell will fall apart. As an artifact, Escarlaje is nearly indestructible and with a little prompting I can make it cut the magic up of anything that touches it."
"That would make it a good Keystone." Tsubasa observed.
"The major minions have enough intelligence and of the Necromancer's expertise to know better than to try and take my body at that time. I pretended to be dead as they walked by which allowed me to see who they carried out with them." Malhavoc tend launched off into a detailed description of everyone he saw being carried away. The group confirmed everyone there as a parent or relative that knew about magic in some way.
"Could you show us the room they had been in?" Doburoku asked after Malhavoc finished.
"Can I get my effects first?" Malhavoc asked. Everyone begrudgingly waited for the elf to comb the courtyard, picking up the occasional dart and pulling his sword out of the pillar. It turned out Malhavoc's sword was fairly short and thin, but it was strong and extremely sharp. Malhavoc then cleaned his weapons and rearranged his tattered clothes a bit, trying to make himself a little more presentable. He then led them into one of the back rooms where prayers were held. Kuirta picked up Sakuraba and carried him with them.
The room was covered in Blake's magic.
Doburoku amplified Kurita's abilities, allowing the Sensitive to tell them a little more about what had happened. It turned out that all the magic users had retaliated, but Blake had somehow absorbed their attacks and then captured them once they were exhausted. A few craters littered the walls and floor.
"I presume that's when Lotem decided to punch something." Malhavoc remarked, knelling down in front of one the craters.
Hiruma didn't say anything, but he did pale a bit.
"Succubus are inhumanly strong, Incubus are inhumanly quick. You wouldn't have been able to live in the Upground if you had inherited your mother's strength." Malhavoc pointed out wisely and softly.
Hiruma nodded, understanding completely.
"Lotem didn't use any magic." Shin observed, a little perplexed by this development.
"Underground magic isn't very powerful in the Upground," Zork explained, "you have to be either very powerful or have a good channel if you want to access it here. Mom isn't that powerful and she doesn't have a channel that I know off…."
"She couldn't use magic then." Mamori concluded.
"So you're extremely powerful then?" Juumonji asked Malhavoc, recalling the size of the shield the elf had made to enclose the melfin earlier.
"And I have a good channel." Malhavoc held up Escarlaje.
Musashi looked at Zork, then looked and met Malhavoc's gaze. Zork, to most of the group's unawareness, was pretty damn powerful. This made Musashi shiver a bit.
"…I think we are done here." Malhavoc remarked after a moment.
"What?" Monta asked. "But we've only been here for a few minutes!"
"I can reenact what happened here well enough for my brother's needs." Malhavoc explained.
"Malhavoc is an expert at these things," Doburoku assured them, "and I'm sure he knows what Zeke will want to know better than us."
"Your magical observations are better than I can do," Malhavoc remarked as he began to leave, "Zeke will be pleased about that."
"I can't see how you and Zeke are related." Monta admitted. "You look so different."
"That we do." Malhavoc nodded. "If I didn't know better I'd tell you I wasn't related to him either."
And with that the group fell into a slience that stuck with them until they arrived at Deimon. Thankfully there was no one around, but some idiot (probably the principal) had locked the gates.
"How are we going to get inside?" Mamori asked. She could unlock the lock with magic, but she wanted to conserve her powers.
"It's a simple lock." Malhavoc remarked as he pulled out a long, thin, metal rod and stuck it up into the lock. Less than a second later the padlock clicked open.
"You can pick locks?" Juumonji was surprised.
"I can also kill you in your sleep and leave no trace." Malhavoc gave Juumonji a flat look. "Lock picking is a much easier task, really."
No one commented to that and they entered into the area. There were small traces of Blake's magic, but they were few and weak. Upon arrival at the clubhouse, they discovered Takami passed out in front of the partly open door.
"What happened?" Tsubasa asked. Zork pointed at the red smudge on the handle of the door.
"Youichi's blood has a magic absorbing property," Zork explained, "and there's some of it here on the handle." Hiruma didn't seem too thrilled with the news, but said nothing.
"It only got part of it." Shin added.
"Fuck." Hiruma muttered and walked over to Takami. He quietly ate the magic and felt extremely naucious afterwards. Malhavoc frowned and proceeded to punch Hiruma in the stomach, making him vomit up all the horrible magic. The stuff smelled like rotting jello and looked a lot worse than the auras Shin had been observing all day.
"Ungh." Hiruma muttered, no longer feeling nacious, but feeling like crap because he was just puking.
"Urbzig!" Malhavoc cried and drove Escarlaje into the nasty green goo, making disappear instantly. After a funny sway, Malhavoc fell over onto his butt, exhausted. The elf began to chatter strangely, saying words in languages no one was familiar with.
"…I think that's Ventish Elfin," Zork commented, "I hope it is."
"What do you think is wrong with him?" Tsubasa asked Doburoku.
"Magic exhaustion maybe?" Doburoku guessed. "He's acting more like he's drunk."
"Maybe he ate the green stuff?" Taki suggested.
"No."
"Impossible!"
"…I suppose we should do something about the melfin while we are here." Mamori changed the subject suddenly. "Since Malhavoc can't do anything."
"Don't worry about him," Zork assured the others, "Zeke-Mancer is his brother, he'll fix him right up!"
"M-melfin!" Komusubi cried, holding up his shield.
"Right!"
_=_=_=_=_
And I leave you there.