Hyacinth watched as Keith began to chant, his eyes closed and a solemn seriousness on his face. Ears pricked up and attentive while that fluffy tail of his waved back and forth like a pendulum. Holding his spear, he readied himself, taking deep breaths.
Failure is not an option.
A dagger in the shoulder, fire behind him. A city in the center of the world, fire, ash, and blood in his lips.
“Oryath…”
He barely flinches at the hazy memory. He’s always been stubborn, and Perseus has more reason than most to tell him not to fail. Failing meant injury. Failing meant betrayal. Failing meant the world’s most beloved city is now nothing more than a barren wasteland.
He can’t afford to fail and if it means relying on the most untrustworthy man in their group, then so be it.
Keith slashed at the air, ending the chant. No wonder Oryath summoned one specific person, summoning unfamiliar demons is a pain!
Black chains surrounded the circle, signifying the summoning success. His own chains glowed around his arms, golden shining and mixing with the golden hour of Seipodon. With his daggers in his hands, he glanced at Hyacinth.
“Since this is their first summoning from me, they’ll be here in three heartbeats.”
Hyacinth nodded.
One.
The air smells like salt and tastes like blood.
Two.
“I call dibs on Morbi.” Keith said.
Hyacinth scoffed. “Go ahead. I’ll beat Nosoi fast and help you after.”
“I bet I can beat Morbi faster than you can Nosoi!” He stuck out his tongue.
Three.
“Okay.”
The demons appeared.
Lower tier demons often hold grotesque forms. It’s how one can classify the demons into low, mid, and high. The more humanoid a demon, the more powerful. Ren was on the lower end of a high tier demon. Human features with only a few demonic features creeping such as feathers in his hair and down his arms, an elegant mixture of bird-like and human. Tiamat was fully human in her features, a beautiful woman with gold eyes.
Nosoi and Morbi?
They’re small fry compared to that. One had skin molten like a burn wound, with poisonous green eyes. The other had red eyes and sickly pale skin and pronounced veins of purple. Both had spiked horns growing from their forehead, like a rhinoceros. Truly, the only thing to be wary of would be their touch.
“Who summoned the great Nosoi?” The giant walking burn wound rasped, smoke leaving their lips.
The pale one gestured, making a downward motion with their hand “And the brilliant Morbi?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktfs vlvc’a kjraf jcs alwf.
Bflat atgfk tlr vjuufg ja Zbgyl, yfobgf afifqbgalcu yftlcv atfw jcv kgjqqlcu atfw lc j mtjlc. Zbgyl kjamtfv klat mbiv, vfjv fsfr yfobgf-
What the hell?! Keith dodged out of the way avoiding his own dagger.
Zbgyl tjv aegcfv lcab j qjif obu, tlr mtjlcr alutafclcu jgbecv cbatlcu. Llr fjgr tfjgv atf rbecv bo tfjns ujrqlcu ygfjat yfobgf ojiilcu yjmx. C mijkfv tjcv wjafgljilhlcu jr Zbgyl wbnfv ab rmgjamt ja tlw.
What the-?! What happened to being cannon fodder! Keith cursed. His knife flew at Morbi anyway.
Instead of turning into fog, Morbi dodged. Keith flung a chain at him. Fog. He cursed, turning around and slicing nothing. Then, he heard it.
A gasp to the right.
There! He sliced, Morbi let out a gasp. A slice on the clawed hand, not enough to stop the attack though.
Not letting up, he aimed at the neck with his offhand dagger, hoping to end this quickly. Morbi moved to try and grab his arm. He teleported away. As expected, it’s hard to attack someone you can’t even touch! He clicked his tongue, as he lost track of his opponent. He closed his eyes.
Left! He turned, throwing a dagger and teleporting away.
“Watch where you’re teleporting!” Hyacinth grunted beside him, water hastily forming an ice shield as Nosoi scratched at it, leaving deep welts on the ice. Scattered around him are bubbles, floating in the air and holding Nosoi’s smoking breath.
Keith gritted his teeth. “Shut up!”
They glared at one another.
Behind Hyacinth, he can see Nosoi moving to grab Hyacinth. Meanwhile, said person lifted up his spear. Uncaring, he continued to glare at Hyacinth while throwing a dagger at Nosoi. In return, a black spear struck to the right of his head. A strangled noise echoed behind him. As expected of a former hero of Yore, his instincts are good.
“Hah, wanna switch?” He asked, side stepping a swipe from Morbi.
Hyacinth scoffed. “Sure. Have fun.”
With a smile, Keith tapped Hyacinth’s shoulder. “Tag.”
Then he teleported.
Unlike Morbi who turned into fog every once in a while, Nosoi had no such thing. Clawing and moving to try and punch him, all the while Keith teleported away. His knives flew alongside golden chains. The only problem was that Nosoi’s poison breath would melt away the metal and even managed to minorly corrupt the golden chains, forcing him to withdraw it.
He’s growing tired.
That’s when he slipped up.
Nosoi moved to swipe at him, leaving his chest open. In a flash, he drove his dagger deep in the other’s chest. The other howled, his smoking breath flying over his face. Keith cursed as he pulled back but it was too late. His nose, while not as sensitive as his hearing, still caught wind of it.
Dizziness hit him hard.
He stumbled. Leaning back and barely dodging a swipe at his neck. He threw a chain at Nosoi’s neck, cursing himself.
Stupid! He scolded. He should have done this from the start. Another wave of dizziness caused him to stumble. Not willing to take the chance, he yanked on it.
“Keith!”
A gasp to his right. He teleported away, freeing Nosoi in the process. Glaring, he growled. So close. He lamented. Another dizzy spell, and this time, he can’t move.
A paralytic. Great.
Now that he was out of the fight, he found himself watching Hyacinth. Bubbles and whirlpools, spinning around like a dance. That black spear swung around this way and that. He could hear Morbi and it seems his ears can still move somewhat. His ears twitch left. Hyacinth dodges. A water spike lodges itself into Morbi. His eyes glance at Nosoi. Hyacinth turns, stabbing him with his spear.
Wait, is… Is he using me to tell where they are? To test this, Keith glares at Morbi. Hyacinth looks him in the eye as a blade of water slices at Morbi without looking. He is!
With that, he stayed alert. Morbi’s gasps were the only tell when it came to the fog form. Meanwhile Nosoi relied on the poison breath. Keith, with his sensitive nose, had to stay farther away but even then it wasn’t enough. But even with him giving Hyacinth cues, he can see him struggling. Ice spikes were becoming a second delayed, the accuracy dropping slightly. With Morbi and Nosoi teaming up, Hyacinth couldn’t freeze Morbi like he did earlier.
But… Keith narrowed his eyes. My gift isn’t the wolf traits, that’s my mark.
With that in mind, he began focusing on the golden chains around his arms. Focusing on Morbi, he focused on using his gift: Binding. Taking a deep breath, he focused on how to bind. After all, that’s a rather vague gift.
“Reach into your soul, Oryath. Breathe in deeply. Then, when you see a flash of light in the darkness, that’s another person’s soul.” Ren explained. “This is usually considered demonic magic, so it may be harder for you to do it.”
“… You have a pretty soul, Ren. Now what do I do? I need to tie it to my soul as an anchor.”
“You reach out.”
He breathed in. Focused on lights in the dark. Hyacinth’s soul was like looking at a beach, brilliant blue and unforgettable. Nosoi was a burnt red, like a rash but Morbi’s… Ah. That explains the fog form, the soul was nothing but a pale gasp of breath. Not a fixed form, but like a spot of light on smoke, highlighting it.
Too bad. Keith huffed. And then, he reached out.
Gold chains wrapped around Morbi’s soul, chaining it into the body.
Bind.
He opened his eyes to see Morbi howling in anger.
“What did you do?!”
Keith winced at the squeal. Hyacinth wasted no time at all. With a sweep of his spear, an elegant arc of water follows its movements, beheading Morbi. Gold dust fell to the floor.
Unwilling to sit back and watch the other sweep the fight, he tried clenching and unclenching his hands. The paralytic was wearing off. That’s good.
With Morbi turned to dust, Nosoi was the only one left. Hyacinth is flagging. Due to Hyacinth’s focus nerf, he was too busy balancing the poison and dodging to properly attack. Most of his energy is spent making bubbles to trap the poison gas of Nosoi. The bubbles floating over the sea and popping the moment it went far.
The other must have known this too. Filling the area with whirlpools, Hyacinth took advantage of Nosoi’s confusion to head to him.
“A paralytic,” He mumbled, reaching into a pouch on the side of his chiton.
Keith, unable to properly talk, glared.
“Don’t worry. It’s a rather light one, Nosoi must have gotten arrogant. Here, can you chew?” He asked, pulling out…
Seaweed.
Raw. Pearl. Seaweed.
A shadow formed in his heart. Is he going to have to chew on seaweed to cure the paralytic? Wait, can he even chew? He paused. Then attempted to bite at Hyacinth. Nope. Can’t chew.
He eyed the confusing mass of whirlpools and watched as Hyacinth set up one around them. A large water column spinning around them, obscuring them from view.
“There, that should keep him busy.” Is all Hyacinth said.
Then he shoved the seaweed in his mouth. Keith would make a face if he could. Instead all he did was glare at Hyacinth. To his surprise the seaweed began to melt in his mouth, making it so he didn’t have to chew at all.
He wasn’t sure what he expected but it’s not that.
After he had enough seaweed shoved in his mouth, the other massaged his neck, allowing it to fall down his throat. Despite the serious look on Hyacinth’s face, his actions were surprisingly gentle. Under his care, Keith managed to regain his movement.
Sighing, Keith stood up. “Be honest, how are you holding up?”
“So-so. I’m reaching the limit of my control and magical exhaustion is close. End this fast. I’ll get rid of the breath.”
“Of course.” He grinned. “Let me finish the job.”
Hyacinth rolled his eyes but let the water fall.
Nosoi immediately went on the offensive, not even mourning his comrade as he rushed at them. Keith flung his chains, wrapping it around Nosoi’s neck. In response, Nosoi tried to paralyze him once more. Hyacinth wrapped a bubble around Nosoi’s head now that he had enough water to reinforce it. The water bubble filled with water from all those whirlpools and Keith yanked.
Golden dust on the ground.
Dead.
“We need to gather their dust and hand it to the priests,” Hyacinth spoke, his voice softer.
Glancing at him, even Keith could see his fatigue. Shoulders down and relaxed and his spear is in its earring form. Exhausted, Keith fell to his knees and canceled the circle. Despite having Oryath’s magical core, this body isn’t used to channeling so much magic. And it’s clear Hyacinth was struggling to stay awake due to having spent the majority of the battle focused on managing all the whirlpools and bubbles.
He huffed. A part of his own exhaustion is born from using soul magic after so long. Many consider it a demon magic but it’s actually possible for people to learn it too. Oryath had learned from Ren, which came in handy but…
It’s too tiring! Keith feels like he could sleep forever. He glanced down at the ground, seeing Hyacinth casually gather all the dust into a spare bag that smelt like seaweed. He gave Hyacinth a dry look.
And promptly passed out then and there.
I had finished this chapter during a gap between my projects which was from late night till early morning. It took me a while to be free enough to actually edit this and wow were some of the things I wrote incomprehensible. Just goes to show that maybe writing while sleepy might be something I shouldn’t do often or at all. Argh, fight scenes are difficult! Luckily my friend who does boxing is more than willing to help read over my fight scenes and suggest stuff. On a side note, I can finally move on from Seipodon! It means I can now start counting down. What am I counting down to? Heh. You’ll see :3
Countdown: 3
“Since this is they’re first summoning from me, they’ll be here in three heartbeats.”
The they’re should be their.
Thank you for catching that!
I somehow expected a kiss at the seaweed scene. Not being able to chew and Hyacinth helping him and then giving it mouth to mouth. 😁 Well, I will wate for a more romantic kiss in the future without seaweed. 😉 But maybe there will be a princess carry now that Keith passt out? 🧐 Who is Ren? Another new/old friend?🤔
Thank you for the chapter ❤️❤️❤️