Chapter 43: Purity
Manipulation of time struck him as awfully powerful- even in terms of being the demon lord.
From what Izaya had learned so far either the crab had taught Shizuo the spell or he didn't remember acquiring it.
Hope blossomed in Izaya's chest for the smallest second as he started to understand just how powerful Shizuo truly was.
Staying in hell had been his logical conclusion as he had no interest in sending Shizuo to his death. But what if he had a chance to win?
Shaking his head, Izaya quickly abandoned the idea.
No. There was no benefit of wrecking his head about an option he didn't want to risk.
Right now the most important matter was to learn how to defend himself against the demons and Shizuo's runes had just bought him the time he needed to do exactly that.
"How long does this work?" he asked while looking at the arguably gorgeous writing imprinted onto his arm.
A short moment of contemplation seemed to claim Shizuo whole as he glanced towards the ceiling.
"As long as I am alive, I think."
And Izaya frowned. "...I thought I was supposed to protect myself?" This was not what he had expected when Shizuo said he had to learn to defend himself.
But Shizuo only shrugged with a sigh. "It's a safety measure. It will only work as long as you remain in my sight since I need to activate it."
Remain by his side, huh?
That sounded easy enough. Shizuo rarely wandered off for no reason, and even when he did it was out of concern that he would endanger Izaya's life further by sticking close.
But now that this topic was resolved- Izaya looked at the patterns. The demon that had attacked Shizuo before Crysteria quickly came to mind and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Is there a downside to this?" The spell was unbelievably powerful and yet Shizuo had not used it during his fight from what he could tell. "Or why didn't you use it earlier when that demon attacked us?"
Hesitation marked Shizuo's expression and Izaya only felt even more convinced that this was not something he should rely on.
"Because it can only be applied to one person at a time," Shizuo admitted begrudgingly, only confirming Izaya's idea.
So the reason he hadn't used it earlier was because he couldn't use it on both, Izaya as well as him. Izaya could only speculate what would have happened if Shizuo used it on himself while carrying Izaya. Maybe the times overlapping would have conflicted and torn him apart?
Hell did seem like it loved to set rules like that so Izaya wouldn't be all too surprised if that was the consequence that Shizuo had wanted to avoid. It also explained how he was able to defeat the demon this quickly as soon as Izaya was cut from the equation.
Which only left one more problem to be solved.
"And how will you face the demons from now on?" Izaya asked, and as expected all Shizuo had to offer was a sigh.
"I'm the demon lord. I'm sturdy. Believe it or not I can take a few blows without being affected." So he did plan to handicap himself in order to keep Izaya safe. "But you can't," Shizuo added after a short pause, and despite having been about to complain Izaya's words somehow got stuck in his throat at the show of affection.
They were the same.
Izaya didn't want Shizuo to get hurt, or possibly die. But the same accounted for Shizuo.
And to him Izaya was probably the one causing even more worry and grief.
Swallowing his pride Izaya groaned for a second before admitting defeat.
"Then I hope you won't regret this."
Looking at his arm a waterfly floated next to it as if to inspect what the two of them were doing here.
It caused Izaya to wondered whether these small creatures owned a conscience or just acted on instinct.
"What now? With enough time to cast a spell, are you teaching me one?" he asked as Shizuo had yet to continue on his quest to make him able to defend himself and the demon titled his head upwards.
"More or less," he mumbled before nodding to himself. "Look at them. What do you see?" He asked, and pointed towards the waterflys.
Following the countless bodies circling the cave and bumping into the walls as well as themselves Izaya wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to tell the demon.
"Bodies of floating water containing lights?" he tried and Shizuo nodded.
"What color?"
Glancing around Izaya tried to make out a set of particularly colorful waterflies. He almost expected to spot a few rainbow shaded ones upon closer examination, but all he saw was the black and white he had already seen earlier.
"Black and white," he sighed truthfully, but to his surprise Shizuo's expression lit up.
"That's more than I expected," a smile quickly spread across his lips and before Izaya even got to ask for his intentions the demon had approached.
Touching his eyelids in the same fashion he had when he showed him the heaven above, Izaya closed his eyes for a second before opening them to a new surrounding.
"And now?"
This was what Izaya imagined being drugged by someone had to feel like.
Eyes turning around what had been a simple cave before he wasn't quite sure what he was looking at anymore.
The mossy ground of green had turned into an even brighter tone and changed its shape entirely to that of glittering jellyfish. The walls surrounding them turned into chunks of red flesh and the fireflies circling his hands seemed to hold not only light, but a burning flame inside their bodies.
"You did this before. Is this your vision?" Izaya asked and Shizuo nodded.
"Most of the time, yeah." Izaya's hand was taken and he left the demon to do as he pleased as he drew a circle into his left and a cross into his right palm.
"Holy magic, dark magic, both is incantated by simple words that hold the meaning of the spell. But you need to speak them with the right kind in mind."
As if having unlocked some sort of skill a soft flame, impressively cool and void of pain started to flicker inside Izaya's hands.
A black one danced in his left and a white one in his right.
"Think of something cold. Heavy and big," Shizuo suddenly instructed and Izaya looked at him a little doubtful before gazing back at the black flame.
It wasn't entirely black. Streaks of white interrupted the purity of its shape and the same went for the white one as it was perturbed by blotches of black.
Something cold, something big.
An ice cube the size of his fist was the first thing that came to mind and he looked at the black root of fire as if he were feeding it the image.
Funnily enough it did actually grow a little in size and drove away some of the white.
"That's better than expected," Shizuo praised unexpectedly, "That's mostly dark magic. The more you focus on the sensation you feel in your hand the darker it should get."
So it was purity that Shizuo was after.
Looking at the flame inside his palm Izaya closed his eyes in an effort to enhance the vivid image of an ice cube.
"No, open them," Shizuo complained almost immediately, and Izaya blinked as he looked at the demon. Pointing towards the waterflies circling the air he nodded towards them. "They will help you."
Help?
How?
No matter how he looked at the creatures they seemed far from capable of enacting anything but flight.
And yet the more he looked at them, the more he started to notice that they seemed to gather around his body in equal parts.
White and black was the color defining their glowing bodies, and it was exactly that glow that seemed to attract them to his palms.
"What are they doing?" Izaya asked as he looked at a couple white ones drifting to the black in his palm and a few black ones drift to his white flame quite as if they were sorting themselves out.
"The males of this species are attracted to dark magic. They notice the lightest changes in their environment," Shizuo explained quickly and Izaya couldn't help but snort for a moment.
So basically they thought his flames were very attractive waterflies of the opposite gender.
"Are they the reason we are here?" Izaya asked and Shizuo nodded.
"One of them. Usually it takes weeks to properly envision the right kind of magic, but by watching them you can actually see what you are doing."
So he was cheating.
"The other hand is for holy magic then I suppose?" Izaya asked while looking at the obvious flame of white. Even its shape and the way it felt in his hand supported the idea without needing the demon lord to tell him. "I thought holy magic is dangerous to use inside hell? Draining my life and all, why are you teaching me how to use it?"
A an amused expression crossed Shizuo's face as he looked at his human. Izaya could tell just from his face how little these flames drained a demon.
"This amount won't harm you and you need to understand both in order to work with one," Shizuo confirmed and showed his palm. A fire of black immediately popped up inside his hand, or rather two. Black and white, snuggling up to each other, but without mixing at all. "Only if you separate the holy magic from the dark you can use either of them."
Izaya wasn't sure whether the double flame Shizuo held was impressive to a demon, but to him it was.
Looking at both his hands he already had trouble getting the flames separated. How much control did it take to place them in one hand?
It was the slightest bit discouraging, but at the same time motivating. He could see the flames. He could manipulate the flames, no matter how weak his skills were, he was going to improve, so at some point he could do the same things the demon lord could.
Eyes narrowing in concentration he looked at the black flame mixed with white. The concept was simple. It worked like two kinds of fuel that needed to be separated in order to work their unique spells.
Something cold. Something heavy. Again Izaya envisioned the ice cube inside his palm. Heavier. Bigger. Colder. He went so far as to imagine it as dry ice with a tail of fog clouding its shape. But the color didn't improve.
It was black. As black as it could be in the spots that it already had attained the color it was supposed to, but the streaks of white still refused to fade.
Looking towards the waterflies Izaya spotted mostly white ones drifting to his palm, but also a few black ones.
No matter how hard he seemed to concentrate, the intensity of the flame increased, but not its purity.
He glanced towards the white one carrying similar imperfections. "What am I supposed to feel in this one?"
"Warmth," Shizuo hummed, "Light. Sometimes I think of the feeling as touching one of these creatures. Soft and harmless."
So, the opposite. Made sense.
The picture provided was a good one too as the white flame immediately picked up in intensity and a flock of black waterflies quickly scurried over in excitement. But just as with the black flame, the issue of purity remained.
Maybe he needed a different visual?
Something more abstract maybe? Or something connected to a more impactful experience? Might be a good idea. Memories were easier to imagine than abstract concepts.
And so Izaya tilted his head upwards as he tried to think of something unsettling. Something cold and heavy.
"Do you have any hints for me on how to improve it?" Izaya asked, but Shizuo wasn't the most experienced teacher. Hell he probably had never taught anyone hell's spells before.
"Not really, I'm using it by gut feeling," he admitted and the flame on his hand danced up and down as he looked at it in order to grasp what it was that he was actually doing.
All Izaya could offer was a snort. "Why am I not surprised about that?"
Tilting his head the demon looked at his flames growing smaller and taller at his will. "I try to envision myself losing to another demon and him tearing my guts out of my stomach and how I kill him at the last moment despite that," he suddenly said, delivering a concept much more detailed than Izaya had expected.
He cringed slightly at the idea, "Pretty gore, don't you think?"
But the demon only shrugged. "Works for me."
But it was a good hint.
Danger. What Shizuo was working with wasn't exactly heaviness or cold. It was rather the weight of knowledge that he could die and the cold clutch in his stomach fearing the option. As for the victorious part- looking at the white flame Izaya figured that the idea of winning over such a difficult opponent and the sheer relief was what Shizuo had tried to describe as warmth and lightness.
So basically these flames reacted to his state of mind and not to a concept.
Looking at his black flame Izaya tried to think of an injury he suffered. Of moments where gravity pulled down his body against his will.
The various creatures he had met in hell so far came to mind, but none of those triggered the kind of terror he needed. If there was a moment he truly feared for his life with ice in his guts then-
And suddenly Izaya blinked.
Right.
There was a moment. A literal moment where his body froze.
The currents. The moment they shifted and trapped him inside. Shizuo's back had been turned to him and for a brief moment, even if it wasn't long, he feared the demon wouldn't be fast enough to catch up to him before he suffocated.
Recalling the emotions he felt back then he looked at the black flame.
And really-
"Like that-" Shizuo praised the second Izaya's lips curled into a smile as the fire darkened. It was still missing perfection, but it was progress.
"Now try the other one at the same time."
Confused as well as slightly appalled by the way his newest achievement was already disregarded he looked at the white flame.
"But it's not completely black yet-" he argued, but that didn't seem to be an issue as Shizuo shook his head. "Doesn't matter."
This demon was funny.
Imagine both of these sensations at the same time?
How even?
to be continued~
xD Trainings arc yaayy~ xDDD It's gonna be over sooner than expected tho haha Izaya is learning too fast tse-
See you next friday haha xD
