“And now we try and get rid of these!” Caille hissed as soon as her cosmos skinned summoned being attacked the demon.
Kyle nodded, but before they could even turn to try and get rid of the patch of thorny briars, the sudden appearance of a health bar at the bottom of their vision stopped them both in their tracks.
‘Droigheann, Demon of the Nightbloom’
Kyle gulped. “We need to hurry,” he hissed as he looked over his shoulder, to see how the battle begun.
The Demon of the Nightbloom took his blade in hand just as the being summoned into the material plane by Caille reached him. He struck her with his blade, sending her flying across the room like she had no weight at all. A black liquid splattered on the ground.
Caille clicked her tongue. “She’s not strong enough – she doesn’t even know how to use that body.” She muttered as she turned her attention back at the briars
Kyle gritted his teeth. No, he wanted to shout, but he stopped himself. Accepting the deal was out of the question. He couldn’t – demonic powers, as tempting as they were, would bring him nothing but trouble.The Demon waited patiently as Kyle struggled to break free from the vines holding him still. His arms were pressed against his body, and he couldn’t move his legs at all. The vines continued to wrap themselves around him even as he struggled.“Why would you even offer me that?” he asked in an attempt to buy some time. He could feel his right hand move just a bit. All he needed was to touch the demon, and this nightmare would be over. “You don’t stand to gain anything.” He glared at the demon, desperately hoping he wouldn’t notice Kyle slowly wiggling his right arm free.The Demon chuckled. “Oh, I do stand to gain plenty.” He said with a prideful voice. “But it is of no concern to you &n
When the demon unsheathed his blade, Kyle expected to die within the next handful of seconds. What he didn’t expect was for the demon to proceed to ignore him and start drawing a circle on the ground. Then another, then a third…He drew a total of five circles, one around Kyle, and the other four intertwining with each other around the central one. Then, he proceeded to draw runes and inscriptions.“What is this?!” Kyle asked, only to be ignored. His heart raced as he tried to make sense of the inscriptions. The language they were written in was only vaguely familiar to him. Some characters were in elvish, while others were a completely different tongue.While he had never seen this spell array before, it’s purpose was very clear.“Hey!” He tried to distract the demon as he carefully continued drawing strange symbols and inscriptions onto the ground. Where his sword touched the ground, a dark mark was left behind
Kyle gasped for air as the demon watched him struggle. His gaze remained firm. He wasn’t going to budge.The young man struggled against the vines helplessly. He could barely breathe, his lungs were burning already. His vision began to darken as he felt his body grow heavy. No, he thought as his thoughts seemed to slow. He couldn’t lose consciousness now – he needed to be awake for when Caille arrived!“I can’t!” he somehow managed to wheeze with the last bit of air left in his lungs.The Demon’s expression immediately changed. His fingers twitched, and the vines squeezing Kyle’s throat loosened enough to let him breathe.Blood rushed to Kyle’s face, some colour returned to his cheeks. His lungs hurt, they burnt with each breath he took. He wheezed and forced himself to take slow breaths as the world spun around him.“You can’t.” The Demon stated with a slightly surprised expre
Where the blade struck the ground, darkness spread. The array of five circles and hundreds of symbols and inscriptions came to life, radiating darkness, seemingly consuming whatever light was left in the great hall of the temple of light.Kyle’s eyes widened as the spells took effect, one after another.At first, nothing happened. The array drawn on the ground all around him lit up, the lights drained from the great hall, leaving only a few dimmed sources of light. Yet, nothing happened to him. He had braced himself for pain, but he felt none just then.Then, he felt it. The cold penetrated right to his bones.“Last chance,” The Demon reminded him.“I can’t!” Kyle shouted again. The Demon’s lips formed a thin line and rested his hand on the hilt of his blade. “Very well then.”His eyes flashed purple, and Kyle felt a sudden pain in his arm. His eyes widened as the pain began to grow worse
Kyle’s heart skipped a beat. “What? No!” He shouted as Luke took a few more steps back. He wanted to follow the Paladin, but the vines were still holding him in place.“How could we be tricked so easily…?” Luke muttered, stepping further back. “I need to let Igna know – she…”“Luke!” Kyle shouted desperately. He didn’t have the strength left to summon anyone, and the only one he could summon that could help him out was the Demon of the Nightbloom. And he didn’t think he could keep that being under control right now. “I wasn’t lying! I-“ He coughed. His throat was sore, everything hurt.“Please just listen.” He said with a hoarse voice. He didn’t have the strength left to shout. “Please.” He pleaded as the Paladin pressed his hand against his forehead, still shaking his head in disbelief.“I can’t believe this.&r
Kyle could feel Luke’s intense gaze on his back as he approached the altar. Some time had passed since they defeated the Demon of the Nightbloom, and Kyle had gotten the chance to rest a little.“You’re limping.” Luke stated the obvious. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any mana left.”Kyle chuckled and shook his head. “I’ll be fine, it’s not a big issue.” He paused by the altar and took a closer look at it. It was nothing fancy, just a white, marble slab with a flat surface. Kyle ran his fingers along the surface of it. It was smooth and clean. There wasn’t a speck of dust on it.“I’ll heal that too once my mana has refilled a bit.” Luke continued, his mind clearly still lingering on the subject. Kyle sighed inwardly. This was why he didn’t want to tell them – they started to worry too much. To treat him differently. Igna had done it too, at first. He didn’
Caille’s intense gaze was making this about thrice as hard as it should have been. She listened intently to his every word, and never stopped glaring at him. Kyle didn’t look at her as he spoke – he looked at his hands, forcing himself to focus, and make sure his speech was cohesive, and understandable, not an incomprehensible mess. “So… yeah. Sorry I didn’t tell you before – I didn’t want anyone to worry about me too much and hanging out with you guys was so fun that I thought if I told you, I’d lose that.” He breathed a sigh, then raised his eyes to look at the Eldritch Witch. There was no shock on her expression, not did she seem angry. She just thoughtfully nodded. “Hmm…” She muttered. “Uh, Caille?” Luke piped up. “Did you hear him?” “I did.” She said, clearly somewhat lost in thought. Kyle and Luke exchanged confused glances. “Then why aren’t you reacting?!” Luke exclaimed finally. “Don’t you realise what he just told you?” <
They ate a congratulatory meal before setting out despite Caille’s best advice.“We’ll be fine!” Igna insisted. “Look, we’ve got a raid planned for tomorrow – we can’t spend the night here!”“We can do the raid later, like… at noon!” Caille protested, only to be shot down by her guild leader again.And as such, despite Caille’s protests, they set off. Players rarely travelled at night, and their sleep schedules were a very small part of the reason. This world was a whole lot more dangerous at night. More powerful creatures left their dens, and visibility was incredibly low. Even Kyle’s raven wouldn’t help at this time because it wouldn’t be able to see anything.Despite all that, Igna was sure they would be fine. As Caille and Igna took the lead and rode out, Luke made sure keep the same pace as Kyle, following the girls from a couple of meters behind.