CHAPTER 4

“Thank you.

His voice echoes from his fading body, then a white light shines in front of me. Terrance in his youth floats above, smiles, then disperses. This was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that. Could it be possible that my demonic magic is fusing with Maria’s holy magic?

“A Demonic Priestess...” It wasn’t unheard of but… It wouldn’t normally create such an effect. I get a little excited over the prospect of the idea. It just means I’m closer to becoming a healer!

The ground rumbles. I look behind me and see Wormie. He along with his friends are seen launching themselves from the top of the pit. Like javelins that had been tossed at an enemy from a far distance.

“Wh…”

In groups they land, causing the ground to continue rumbling. I get shaken,

“What’re you guys doing?!”

I watch as they start bashing through the terrain and changing the area, making it more efficient for them to move in. This was their way of continuing the traveling system they had in all other parts of the underground caverns. Aside from my imbalance stance, they all avoid crashing into me. I am then greeted by Wormie,

“Are you finally going to take me out of here?!”

Its mouth opens up,

“Eh?”

And I am eaten within an instant. Its insides are rough yet moist, it smells of dirt and I can hear the muffled sounds of movement. I use my staff to create a light. I see how nearly empty and hollow Wormie’s insides are. Teeth spiraling down until a certain point to where they end. I rest against a tooth. My eyes still open, I see undigested roots near me, which tells me that I haven’t actually been eaten.

“O.k! This isn’t funny Wormie!”

I can feel the rumbling inside of its body coming to a stop.

“...”

I look ahead hiding behind the tooth. Still no opening. Why have we stopped? I use my staff to illuminate more of the worm’s insides as I stand up. I see a needle-like creature pointing at me, wait… Is this the tongue?! Do they have tongues?! Its piercing shape feels like it’s staring me down and takes its shot.It strikes under my feet. Being too late to move, it trips me causing me to fall on top of it and at full speed it sends me flying out of Wormie’s mouth with a flick. I shout!

“AAAAHHH!!!”

I land on something soft. My eyes closed until the sun hit me for a brief moment. I open my eyes and the shades of trees touch my skin. The wind giving me a gentle kiss once I realize,

“I’m outside?!”

I roll over onto my back. I can’t help but laugh,

“I’m outside!”

I sit up and see the path between the desert and forest. Within the area of desert my eyes are greeted by Wormie’s faceless face,

“You did it you stupid worm! You could understand me! Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

It leaves. Wait…

“What?! YOU COULD TALK?! HEY GET BACK HERE!”

I didn’t know they could talk! Why was he so quiet!!!

I fall back down onto my back,

“I’m getting closer… The Father said if I make it through the desert and find my way out the forest, I could find the town and start making a name for myself.”

However,

“I still don’t know how to use healing magic…”

I may have the look all set, but that’s as far I go when it comes to being a healer. I regain my composure, stand up and start to look around. I walk for a while. A rabbit with a broken leg blocks my path.

“This is perfect!”

The priests in this world require prayers to do their magic for the most part, and from what I’ve learned from Terrance, a mage who doesn’t need to use incantations are known as Great Mages. I didn’t see Father Evin use one, so are there Great Priests then? Generally, demons rarely need to use incantations for any spell… And I’m a demon! I also have Maria’s knowledge of how a healing spell would work, and I’ve seen demonic priestesses and priests in the underworld so… If I can’t use Maria’s divine magic, what if I make a spell of my own. If I use words it will control the stability, and if I use my magic to boost it, adding onto the power of efficiency towards it. It will be my first healing spell, and if I do it correctly… This rabbit is going to be so overpowered! I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up on top of the food chain because of me,

“Heheh.” I get on my knees and fold my hands together, “What words to use…” When it comes to incantations the words don’t matter as much, it’s how much passion and belief you put into them. The desires you have within your heart and what resides in your very soul. This is why there can be Great Mages who have mastered the ways of spells without words. However the words need to make sense still and the longer you make it, the more proficient it can become. At least this is what Maria’s thoughts are telling me,

“By the order of… The uhh… Unholy ones… I demand… All those in my sights to be cleansed of their  ailments…” The sun that once was is then blocked by dark clouds, “Is… Is it working?!” I continue my prayer, “Let this poor creature be out of its misery… And run through the world as free as the wind.”

The sounds of thunder roar, followed by lightning. The thunder gets louder, “I ask you unholy ones! Heal this creature!”

I watch as the lightning strikes downwards onto the rabbit.

“...”

It disintegrates by the impact,

“No!!!” I sob, “What did I do wrong?!”

What I didn’t realize until after, was that my staff’s eyes were also eyeing other creatures… To my dismay, as the clouds clear up, I see piles of dead creatures ranging from regular animals, to beasts, to monsters. I get up. Clean off my skirt. Pick up my staff, and walk away.

“That was so embarrassing! But I did learn one thing… Incantations are not the way to go…”

I don’t believe my wording was incorrect, but I do believe that my wording had alternative meanings to what I had initially said. Being a demon who only fights, it would make sense to think “heal” and “be out of its misery” would be interpreted as a “mercy killing”. I think how Father Evin and my dad were able to heal without using words, and would just aim their hands at wounded areas. My dad would be able to cast an energy source. Which if I’m remembering correctly did feel like his power was warmer than normal when he would heal me. And with Father Evin, it almost felt the same when he healed his Brother’s hands…

“So maybe, if I can do something like that, I should be able to heal something…” This time, it would have to work! Right? I’m usually right about these things and my observations help enforce that after all. I take a deep breath in and let a long deep breath out.

“I’ve got this.”

Like a scavenger, I seek out my prey. Searching for any wounded or weakened creatures I can find. Which I thought would be easy but the ones I do find, scurry away from me, and because of my demonic aura, the monsters also scurry away. I mutter,

“I’m about to hurt one myself!”

If there was any faster way of doing this, that would be it. If I wanted to hurt anything, then I’d go back to my dad’s training and become what he wants me to become. I’m wasting so much time searching when I could be training and learning. I really don’t want to give in so easily,

“But…”

I cry out, my impatience has finally gotten to me.

“I want so little…”

“Hold it down!”

I hear voices. Human voices? I hide in plain sight while I try to follow where the voices had come from.

“Did you get it?”

“Yeah, yeah! But you know how it is with these monsters!”

I see two men struggling to tie an injured boar. Their clothes are torn a bit and they appear to be dirty. With my acute sense of smell, it’s easy to tell they’ve been here for a few weeks now. Lost? I let my staff get a closer look to see the boar. Maybe I could distract them and get my healing training done after the boar is able to get away.

“I’m a genius.” I mutter.

As my staff peers in, I notice that the boar is actually a wild demonic pig. Horns out from its backside and half a mane to follow. Eyes rapidly moving as it struggles to break free, and stubby legs. This boar was made to be eaten, and by the looks of these two men, this was going to be their first meal in weeks. I could use that to my advantage. I get up and reveal myself to the men, I have to make this a grand entrance!

“Hello there lost men of the Forest! My name is Maria, a priestess from the distant Cathedral in the desert! Your prayers have been answered.” I sound so cool… One of the men look at me,

“Do you have food?”

“No… But—” He goes back to trying to tie the boar, “Hey! Don’t ignore me!”

“Listen lady, we can’t eat prayers. So unless you have food for us, buzz off.”

I clench my fist. It shouldn’t have but his comment had struck a nerve.

“I see you’re having trouble with that boar.”

“No. Shit.”

“...” I’m going to heal that boar right in front of them. That’s what I’ll do. Then it’ll be strong enough to break free. That’ll teach them to talk to me with more respect.

“Uhh. I will assist you.” I walk towards them both and as they struggle with the boar, my open hand faces it. Father Evin and my dad were able to heal just by casting without words, so that must mean so can I. I focus on thinking of healing the creature and shut my eyes. I let the magic flow through my hand and feel it build up. A warmth slowly making its way to the palm of my hand. The energy is flowing into one spot and finally. I release it onto the boar.

“Heal!”

I hear them cheering… Cheering? I open up my eyes and see the boar fried.

“Thanks lady! You saved us the trouble!”

“Praise this nun!”

I had… Accidentally… Cooked the boar. My hand drops in defeat. There’s no way I’ll be able to learn how to heal in a day. I accept that.

“Hey.” One of the men poke me, as he eats a piece of the boar, “What did you say your name was again?”

“Maria.”

“Maria?”

“Yes.”

“Maria.” The other man says my name as well.

“Y-yes…”

“Maria!” They both say excitedly.

“Are you both just going to say my name?!”

“Our savior. Maria.”

“We’d been out here for weeks now,” I was correct. “As a part of our training!”

“It’s just that…” The other man interrupts, “We forgot to pack food and felt too embarrassed to go back into town.”

Town?! These two might be my way out of here.

“So we decided to hunt down our food and…”

“We failed miserably.”

“Until you showed up! You saved us from starvation!”

“Oh…” I’m not sure what to say to them. I didn’t want to admit to the truth, but also, I was kind of happy knowing I “saved” someone. Even if I didn’t use any healing abilities. This just makes me think that there might be more to healing than using magic. These two were most likely struggling with the boar because they lacked the energy to secure it. Resorting to slowly weakening it and trying to hold it down until they had found the right opportunity to do what it is they set out to do. Almost like how Bet and Bernard had worked together to try and defeat me… Waiting for the right opportunities, huh.

“Claude.”

“Eh?”

“Claude. My name is Claude, and this skinny man is Antoine.”

“You’re just as skinny as I am idiot!”

I laugh a bit, “Nice to meet you both…” I smile at them, “... So you mentioned you're from town?”

Full of energy, Claude gets up, his mouth filled with boar meat and shouts, “Yeah!”

Sitting calmly and finishing his food Antoine adds, “We’re out training before the Grand Title Challenge”

“Grand Title Challenge?”

“It’s given to the strongest in the town! We want to be called Grand Warriors so people can recognize us and treat us with respect finally.”

“No more making fun of us for being ‘try-hards’.” Claude seems to be spiteful.

“They’re just jealous of us really.” This is really not a good look for them. They seem a bit full of themselves.

“Why do they call you two ‘try-hards’?”

“‘Cause we’re just too good!” Claude says without hesitation.

“Too good?”

Claude gets up after swallowing his food, “Watch.”

He walks up to a tree and rips it from its roots, then tosses it at Antoine. Antoine sees the tree coming, holds his food in his mouth and falls onto his back. With his legs up in the air he holds up the tree and starts to exercise with it before dropping it in front of him lightly. This would be impressive to me but,

“I don’t get it…”

They immediately run up to me and at the same time, “What do you mean?! We trained for years to get this way!”

“We’re an unstoppable duo!” Antoine breaks from their unison.

“They call us try-hards because they don’t understand how much we value the Grand Warrior title!”

“Claude has mastered his arms and I have mastered my legs!” Antoine opens his arms in a t-pose and Claude gets behind him. Claude then jumps on top of Antoine’s shoulders and they both do a fighting stance involving the parts of their body they worked on.

“We are one being like this! Without the other…”

“... We fail! But together we triumph!” Antoine finishes Claude’s sentence.

I still don’t get it. I look at them puzzled. A form like that has no sustainability. And I’m going to assume that fighting for the Grand Warrior challenge is something of a tournament. Meaning fighting other people smaller than them, is obviously not going to work in their favor.

“You still look confused.”

“I am. Is it fighting other people?”

“Oh no.”

“What a stupid assumption!” Claude laughs at me.

“Well I don’t know! Elaborate!”

“The Grand Title is given to exceptional warriors who can all work together…”

“... Or alone.”

“Yes, or alone. To fight off a demon!”

“A demon…?”

“Yes!” They both respond in unison.

“A demon that has not been defeated since its arrival here!”

“Until us! It’s roughly the size of us put together…”

“So we literally put ourselves together! And honed in on what we felt would be the best way to handle it.”

They both seem to be excited over their epiphany.

“Once the demon is defeated, we get the Grand Warrior title!”

“Last year’s group had a lot of casualties.”

“Some deaths too!”

“Thankfully the injured were able to live their lives…”

“... To some degree. Our healers in town aren’t miracle workers.”

“Wait!”

Claude gets off of Antoinne. They both notice the boar is almost finished and fight over the last piece. I continue with what I was saying to them as they fight,

“How is the demon handled?”

They both look at me, while holding the piece of meat in their mouths like hungry dogs. The first one who opens his mouth is Antoine who loses the piece as soon as he speaks,

“It seems to have an understanding with the town’s leader. It gets to kill and eat the people who challenge it, and then goes back into its home. A home that is in the town itself.”

Barbaric… “And everyone’s fine with that?”

“There had been some revolutions overtime, but in the end… The demon would be able to stop those without a problem. Any reason given to the demon to eat our people, it’ll take it. So, it was decided that those who could beat the demon would gain the right to ‘Grand Warrior’ and a new leader would be selected.”

So this so-called leader has them held captive in a way, but also gives them a reason to fight. A fight that has only one clear winner so that those in power don’t have their position lost at any time. If the people try to fight outside of their rules though, it’s a loss on them once that demon is loose. It’s a manipulative tactic.

“Can anyone enter this Grand Warrior thing?”