Monette's P.O.V
"What did you do?" asked the elf.
"Just putting the noisy bee to sleep," I yawned "Anyway, you're the witch" I teased while I picked her scimitar.
"I'm not!" Narcilla shouted as men started to put us on their horses. She kept on resisting, insisting that she really wasn't the witch, and that's true. However, as the mister said, the Witch of Malice had gotten inside her -- probably trying to possess Narcilla. She tried to shapeshift, but the glowing red metal collar prevented her from doing so. She never listens to people and I guess she couldn't be blamed for that. She glared at me, pissed. "We're not getting killed, calm down"
Then, she became silent. "Hya!" The golden knight gave enough slack in the reins of his steed, causing it to run at a moderate speed. While moving out from the forest, I asked my rider: "How did you people track down Bloodlust's scent?"
He answered in a serious tone: "The mage gave us this cloth", the man flashed a torn ancient cloth which was worn by the demons about 522 years ago. And it had indeed the same scent as Narcilla's body odor earlier -- It stank. I asked the man some questions as to where we are going to only receive no answers -- He just kept quiet. This man doesn't seem to be the type to talk a lot. He is so unlike Trinity.
It seemed that when Narcilla ate the witch that night, Bloodlust lived within Narcilla's blood and flesh. She must be on to something... other than trying to possess Narcilla.
"I see" I replied as I removed the arrow that struck my shoulder earlier -- it glows, it's made of weak magic. After that, I could feel a slight pain spreading throughout the wound. My, my... it's poison, so dangerous! So beautiful! I gently rubbed my shoulder while breathing the cold morning air to cleanse and heal myself; I felt better as I exhaled.
"It seems that the collar doesn't work on you, Madame," he spoke. Oh, snap, he saw me doing it. I completely forgot about the glowing red collar.
"Yeah" I paused, hoping to find some excuse "It must be fake," I smirked waiting for him to go on with my humor and he indeed let out a confused grin.
"So, what do we do once we arrive at your headquarters?" I asked, changing the topic. "It's all up to the mage" he replied. "Oh, right" I smiled as I felt safe. "This mage better be powerful, he's going against a wild cat"
"More like you should better behave" Narcilla responded from the back.
"Right..." I looked down in embarrassment.
Listening to our conversation, the man laughed and said: "You're funny". Narcilla and I found it downright weird and sarcastic. To think that a knight would be this nice to compliment his captives.
He seemed to be an interesting man. Meanwhile, I look at the other men riding on their stallions and asked him:
"Are you their superiors?"
"Yes, they are our squires" he replied
"That's amazing" I complimented and he smiled.
"What about you Madame?" he paused, "Why are you living in a forest?"
"We're looking for some treasu--" before Narcilla was able to complete her sentence, I told the man: "---for the Silver Light Crescent Moon Feather"
"I see" He paused and faced the silent knight "Did you hear that?"
"Yes," The serious man replied, "Ladies, you got yourselves a rival" he added.
My blood is filled with excitement but I didn't let it show. I acted out a little bit surprised while Narcilla kept quiet.
"We're here"
The stallions slowed down when we got outside the forest. And out there, we saw various tents filled with people. Each tent was guarded by one to two squires with two tall unlit torches standing across the opposite sides of the tent's entrance. As we walk by an irregular path, the field's mood turned from lively into something serious. In silence, several soldiers saluted upon our arrival. Some people got outside the tent to see what's going on. These people -- the adult and young, male and female, wore long tunics of different colors with various designs, wearing myriad pieces of jewelry. I see this place is filled with nobles. I wonder if they're looking for the feather as well. People gazed at Narcilla while she was silently furious, making them gossip and somehow uneasy.
The soldiers, me, and Narcilla dismounted as we arrived on a large round pavilion. Then, when we got inside, the two golden knights accompanied us and some men carried Flint somewhere. Meanwhile, Narcilla didn't like it when she was being held by the friendly knight, so she shoved him off, saying she could walk by herself.
"We've arrived, Your Royal Highness"
"Well, well, well, look who's here..." The voice came from the shadows along with sounds of slow soft footsteps on the ground. A figure of a fat midget man in a long cape emerged from the darkness. He's holding a staff and a book about his size, wearing a huge wizardly cap. So this is the mage that the knight mentioned earlier huh... While he's exchanging phrases with the two knights, I kept thinking about how terrible and hilarious he looked, I shortly glanced at Narcilla and tried not to laugh. She didn't, though she looked back; she seemed to be rather annoyed with the midget's voice.
"Did you get her this time?" asked the mage
"Here she is" the friendly mister from before softly pushed Narcilla forward.
"I'm not the witch!"Narcilla insisted.
Then, a moment after, Narcilla floated closer with just a gesture of his hand.
She frowned, asking: "What do you want from me?"
The mage dropped her on the floor, ignoring her question. I stared at the mage blankly, he's strong I wanted to fight him.
"Let us now begin the soul extracting process" He commanded his fellow men and spread his arms facing Narcilla. His book and staff slowly floated in the air as his assistants surrounded Narcilla. The men had casted a spell and bounded her with glowing chains coming from their hands.
"UGHH!!" The shapeshifter grunted.
The mages started to chant, getting a hold of Narcilla's breath while her fair skin dries. Seconds after, her blood vessels started to become visible, from her arms to her head. It's slowly bulging from her skin as something big was flowing from it.
She suddenly opened her mouth and emitted a foul smell of black smoke. The smoke gathered into one space in the air as two red glowing eyes appeared from it. This is Semiramis Bloodlust, the Blood Witch.
The black smoke burst into laughter when Narcilla fainted.
"How impressive! Very Impressive!"
Sweating heavily, the men continued their chant. The midget looked at Bloodlust and shouted runic dialects to cast a purifying spell. Bloodlust laughed and said: "Malice is inevitable"
His body soon started to decay while his eyeballs were starting to gouge out. It was gruesome, but that didn't stop him. With a flick of his finger, the tent around us turned to dust. The men and Narcilla, faded away to pieces. There are only three of us now with the elf's scimitar left lying on the ground.
The man then inhaled all the tent's flying particles with his mouth as he started to glow and restore his decaying body. Bloodlust just remained in the air, not caring about what happened.
Astonished, I stood up and looked around to see that I found ourselves in a whole new location -- an unfamiliar plateau in the desert Zakad. If he was using a warp mixed with mirage spell, then good shit, this midget must have had an abundant amount of mana.
Bloodlust crazy laugh echoed around the plateau.
"How quaint!"
The mage chanted another spell and the scimitar that was left lying on the ground flew into the ether. Bloodlust became annoyed, breaking the mage's neck before he could finish the spell; the weapon fell back to the ground and the mage fainted. The black smoke got inside the man's body, trying to possess it. The corpse is shaking, things are about to get messy. I'm the only one left and I see the calling of Narcilla's weapon on the ground. I grabbed her weapon immediately and stood up. I was ready to fight, however,
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
the witch suddenly let out a loud scream and got outside the body as dark nimbus clouds started to appear in the skies. While the clouds formed a huge vortex as furious winds spun around the plateau, his corpse began to float. Lightning bolt traveled from the vortex and struck the mage, making a sharp thunder. The winds have settled down as the mage regained his consciousness.
"Well, you're not a boring fellow" Bloodlust complemented with her with a laugh.
He ignored her and once again, continued chanting. The scimitar started to glow until I could hear him chant a spell about slashing the dark anomaly with the weapon. I didn't know cutting smokes was possible. But it seemed that the witch had gotten a gist of the situation since she quickly glanced at me when she heard it.
"Now!" He commanded.
Trying to reach for it, Bloodlust ran towards the scimitar. Fortunately, the weapon was nearby as to where I am. I picked the weapon and snickered. She then channeled a demonic spell. Restraining my movement, she wanted to kill me before I could. She laughed while she's slowly taking out my insides to only know that it had no effect on me.
"You disappoint me, bitch..." I said in a cold tone
"H-how?!"
Hearing her voice shaking, it's obvious that she was surprised.
"None of your business..."
I broke out from impairment and ran towards the witch, ready to slice her up. She ran and flew down to the plateau, trying to flee. The mage who was powerless wasn't able to catch her.
I chased her, however, I'm too slow. I grabbed and used the elixir that I kept in my pocket -- "The Elixir of Lightning". I drank it and it immediately had affected my body. My legs felt lighter than usual while my heart rate is rather abnormal. I ran while still holding the scimitar with my grip, chasing the bloody smoke. Then, I saw her from far away and eventually caught up with a blink of an eye. The witch let out a loud squeal as I slashed her anomaly.
"I-Impossible!"
I smirked, "Notice that you're not the only lunatic person here, can you?"
"It- it - it - it, can't be, NO!!!" She was terrified like she saw an archbishop or a goddess purging her anomaly for the very first time -- tsk, I'm not even one. The scimitar absorbed the whole smoke as it screamed curses until she was completely gone. Then, everything went silent.
I looked at the plateau and saw the midget from earlier floating in the sky. He landed down to smile and said: "Thank you for assisting me in containing Semiramis. I knew you could do it."
"What about your subordinates in the camp?" I asked
"The subordinates are clones that I've made in preparation for this," he replied. I totally knew it was.
"So, uhh... You knew this was going to happen?"
"Yes..." He paused and pointed an unknown symbol on his sleeves.
Comments (0)
See all