"Get back here, kid!" Puvis screamed, out of breath.
Puvis chanted a spell while running:
"Wall of Fire!"
He thrust his hand toward Itoî, and a line of fire erupted. Itoî dodged with a leap to his right; however, the fire kept going until it blocked the path ahead of him.
"Shit!" Itoî said, scrambling to find his wand while sprinting straight toward the flames. He shook it, creating a pulse that pushed the fire back. He seized the moment and jumped through the wall of fire.
"Tch! Stop, you brat!" Puvis yelled, continuing to steer the wall of fire with his right hand, his left supporting it for precision.
Once more, the wall blocked Itoî's path. He used his wand again. He shook it, and the pulse carved a path through the fire.
Tshh...
A faint wisp of smoke escaped from the tip of the wand.
Itoî glanced at his wand in surprise before thinking:
Huh? What just happened? Whatever, no time for this.
He kept running, and the scenario repeated:
"Stop, damn it!"
Puvis threw up another wall in front of Itoî. He was clearly running out of breath from all the running and controlling his spell. A sustained spell naturally drains more energy than a one-shot cast.
Itoî went for a third time and shook the wand. But nothing happened.
"Huh?"
Itoî started shaking the wand frantically. He was only two meters from the wall.
What the hell is this bullshit? The thing's out of juice?
Puvis noticed that Itoî's wand was out of mana, then he sneered:
"AhaAhaAha AHAHAHA!!! What's wrong, kid?! Little wand run out of juice?" he said, panting.
Itoî crossed his arms in front of him and jumped into the fire.
"W-WHAT?! This kid is insane!"
Puvis sprinted to catch him behind the wall of fire.
Itoî hit the ground and started rolling to put out the flames that had caught on his clothes.
"AAArgh!!!" he screamed, suffering from burns.
Puvis killed the fire, then pounced on him while pulling a blade from his pocket. He grabbed Itoî by the throat. The boy kept thrashing.
"It's over, kid! You're gonna pay for what you did! Those Quashtis! We needed them for the old hag!"
Cough, cough.
"W-what were you gonna do with those b—"
Puvis squeezed the boy's throat even harder. Itoî started choking.
"Shut up! Huh? Oh, what's this?"
The poacher noticed the amulet gleaming around Itoî's neck. The stone looked so beautiful, that sparkling blue, and yet its core was slightly darker.
Puvis loosened his guard slightly to grab the amulet. Itoî clutched the cord.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Give me that!" Puvis barked.
Itoî yanked violently at the amulet, but the poacher had more strength and better leverage; after all, he was the one standing. The cord snapped.
"Finally! Hahaha! Oh?"
The amulet had lost its color, turning into a simple transparent stone, as if removing it from its original owner had stripped it of its beauty. Puvis hurled it to the ground.
"What the hell is this?! Why did it turn into a crappy rock?!" he screamed, furious.
Itoî struggled to his feet. He was covered in scratches, and his neck was marked from Puvis's grip. He searched for the stone, but in vain; even with the full moon, the darkness made everything hard to make out.
"Where is it... Fuck... Where's that stone... Ugh...!"
Itoî collapsed, clutching his chest.
Puvis watched him crumple before bursting into laughter:
"Aha! Aha! This kid is so weak!"
He strolled forward casually, blade in hand.
Itoî thought:
What the hell is this pain? It's shooting through my entire body... I still feel the burn, but now it's coming from inside. Shit... And he's coming. I'm done for.
Itoî lost consciousness. He was on his knees, head bowed toward the ground, right arm bent so he wouldn't collapse completely.
"Hey there, kiddo! It's me, your fa-vo-rite demon..."
Itoî was in a dark room. Another encounter with the demon. He stood up in this parallel world and faced the voice.
"I figured it was you. You want my body, I got it," he said in a cold, flat tone.
"Oooh! And he learns fast, too! So what are you waiting—"
"I'm not giving you anything. I don't give a damn if I die, and I'm sure as hell not endangering my brother Vars or the Quashtis we just saved."
The demon observed him from the darkness.
He means it. Has he given up? No... Not at all. I can't see clearly what's happening in the world of the living. But I can briefly read his thoughts, even if it's complicated. There's so much in there—voices, pain... It's strange, it's almost as if... No. That would be ridiculous, he's just a kid. One soul, one body, nothing more...
"So? Nothing to say? You're not going to ask for my soul again? Can I go now?" Itoî said.
The demon appeared as a kind of puddle in front of him. The room had changed; a dim light now filled the space. It was strange, but you could make out the surroundings a bit more. Behind Itoî, as usual, stood the well, with worn stones bearing engraved writings. But the script was impossible to decipher. And in front of him, a puddle that kept spreading, creeping toward the boy's feet. He hopped back slightly.
"I get it. You want to hit me with more visions to break me from the inside?" Itoî said, staring at the puddle unflinchingly.
The puddle slowly receded after those words. The demon thought:
Tch. Fine, whatever, let's do this differently then...
"Listen, you know what? No, I'm not going to offer you a deal this time. We got off on the wrong foot. I'm not going to explain why I'm here, why it's you who's possessed and not some other kid, and blah blah blah."
A kind of black mud formed a humanoid silhouette. It took one step forward, but no more.
"I'm guessing you're fighting some poacher who stole beasts or whatever. You didn't take off that shitty amulet yourself—good, fine. Yeah, I can't read you like a book, it's weird, but whatever. I'm guessing you're different from the others, and not in a 'good' way," he said with a dark chuckle.
"Get to the point. Any second now, that guy's gonna kill me," Itoî said, annoyed.
"Oh, don't worry. In this world, time is frozen. Everything that happens unfolds at a speed the human consciousness can't even fathom. By the time we're done talking, maybe one or two seconds will have passed, tops."
"Whatever. Go on," Itoî said, stamping his foot.
Pfft, this kid is insufferable. He's changed a lot in such a short time, or maybe he's just playing a part? Well, it hardly matters this time.
"Alright. He hurt you. To put it simply: if you croak, I croak, got it? So this time, I'm willing to lend you, let's say, a thousandth of my power?"
"And what am I supposed to do with that little?" Itoî said dismissively.
The demon burst out laughing. His laugh made all the mud in his body vibrate:
"I assure you that even with so 'little,' it'll be more than enough to beat a piece of shit like that."
"What's the deal? What do you want in return?" Itoî asked.
"Nothing."
"What do you mean, nothing?" Itoî asked, intrigued by the fiend's answer.
The demon shrugged, raising his arms as if signaling indifference for once.
"Yeah, nothing. Like I said, I'm passing on very little of my power here. Go on, test the kind of power a demon can offer. Maybe one day you'll come back to see me," he said with a dark chuckle.
He then flicked a blob of dark reddish mud that landed on the ground.
"Pick it up with your hand and lick it. It's my 'blood,' if you will. No side effects this time, promise."
"Fine... Alright..." Itoî said.
He looked so vulnerable, as if everything he'd just said was nothing but a fragile shield. He dipped two fingers into the liquid, then licked it. What an awful taste!
Cough, cough.
"Fuck, that's disgusting!"
The demon chuckled, and the humanoid mud vanished.
I wonder if for once he's telling the truth... Or if he tricked me again. But this time, I don't know, I felt I could trust him.
The room started to dissolve before Itoî found himself floating in an all-white space. For a few moments, he felt like he was in some kind of paradise, as bliss and euphoria washed over and embraced him.
I feel so good... I don't want to wake up.
Then suddenly, his eyes snapped open in the real world. He was still staring at the ground, still in the exact same position as when he'd passed out.
I can hear his footsteps heading toward me...