In the moments before Rakel’s spell explodes, everything fits together in my head.
I realized it the moment the snake mentioned ‘having all of them.’ It’s consumed the people of this village and manipulated their very essence to author itself a more powerful form. That’s soul manipulation at a level I’d expect from a demon general. Far beyond my own abilities. It also means this thing is absolutely capable of tampering with the seal. And it also means there’s no reason to doubt that it can cast Heaven Ascent.
Rakel and I are out of options. There’s no time for anymore arguing. It’s now or never. Fight or die.
The green orb explodes. Rakel is propelled backward. The roof crumbles beneath us.
I watch Rakel as I fall. She curls in the air, clutching her bloody chest.
Am I a coward?
I was afraid when I saw the snake. Afraid to risk the soul that was given to me.
These people. They’re fighting for something that matters to them. I think it’s foolish.
But Olexandrya likely thought my sacrifice in that courtyard was foolish. My willingness to set myself ablaze for my master.
Fine.
I gather mana at my feet and propel myself towards Rakel. I catch her arm and hook my leg around her torso. Her armor flaps, revealing her shredded tunic.
High above, the snake twirls in the air and spreads its arms.
“I feel it!” it screams. “Is this it? True being?”
I shove past Rakel’s arms and plant both of my hands against her chest. Her eyes widen.
“Recursive Bond!” Golden flames race along my arms, bubbling like smoke at my hands. I focus it on her chest and watch the wound tighten and darken as it’s cauterized.
Rakel’s face tightens, and she grits her teeth. We slam into a wall and are knocked apart, landing in a heap on the floor.
Debris rains down around us. Rakel moves, shielding me with her body.
I can feel the mana in the air moving, twisting like a rag being wrung. I push past Rakel and look up.
The snake isn’t cloaking anymore. It’s there. An ocean settling on my back. The true depth of the snake’s mana.
Rakel is pale. She feels it as well.
The walls are coming apart around us, pieces of wood and brick rising into the now open air. The snake is there, surrounded by flying rubble. Its palms are together, one hand facing up and the other facing down.
“Heaven Ascent: Deep Twisting World Of Starvation!”
“Rakel!” I yell, grabbing her. “Counter it, now! Cast your Heaven Ascent! Do it or we’ll die!”
Rakel jumps to her feet, staring up.
Nothing happens.
The floating rubble starts falling, pelting the floor around us. A massive chunk of stone crashes through the wall.
The massive bat passes overhead, wings flapping slowly.
The snake lands on the wall, clinging to the top.
“It didn’t work,” Rakel breathes. She looks at me. “Why didn’t the monster’s spell work?”
I want to yell at her for not casting her own Heaven Ascent, but I know it’s pointless.
I stare past her up at the snake. It seems to be wondering the same thing. It seemed excited to cast the spell to begin with. This creature may have power, but it isn’t trained. It seems to be playing all of this by ear. The only reason we’re alive is because of that inexperience.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “We kill it now. Or it kills us.”
“I’m so close,” the snake says, leaning away from the wall. Its face changes again, rippling like water as it smooths out into a younger face. The hair curls into blonde locks. “I can taste it. I just need to keep pushing. This entire village will be painted in my soul.” It lets go and falls towards us.
“Get ready!” I shout. “Rakel!”
Rakel jumps, meeting the snake midair.
“Hollow Core!” she calls, manifesting another of those green spheres.
But the snake whirls, spearing its tail into the wall and yanking itself out of Rakel’s way.
Rakel kicks off the opposite wall, thrusting the sphere out.
“Moonlight Tranquility.” I raise my arms as the sphere explodes between them. They’re blown apart, each crashing through opposite walls.
The building rumbles and cracks trail upward along the walls.
I lower my arms, searching for a door. I find a set of stairs while the building starts coming apart around me. By the time I’m scrambling out onto the street, a cloud of dust billows out the door as one of the walls comes collapsing inward.
I search the smoky street for any sign of Rakel and the snake.
I find Rakel skidding across the ground up the street. Just behind her, it opens into a wide courtyard. The snake lands nearby, charging at her.
I break into a run.
Rakel is up, blocking a punch on the backs of her arms. The blow staggers her, and she topples over. She’s reaching her limit. She’s resorted to physical combat. That can’t be a good sign.
“Come!” The snake calls, raising her hands.
In the sky, several dots appear. They materialize into more spiders of different colors and sizes. They rain down on the city, crashing through buildings.
I was right. The snake is manually triggering the seal.
One of the spiders tumbles out of a garden, cutting me off. It’s three foot mandibles grab at me.
I skid to a stop and level both arms, unleashing a full frontal blast of golden fire.
The spider stumbles away, wreathed in flames. But another drops, twice the size of the first one. It all but lands on top of me. I drop, rolling under it and jab a hand into its underside.
No time to hesitate.
“Heartsworn Blade!” The flames on my arm solidify into a thick blade, piercing the spider. I jerk my arm to the side, nearly cutting it in half. The spider comes apart above me as I stand.
I’m still here. My soul is still in shape.
Against Olexandrya, casting a second-class spell felt like it had drained me. But now, it’s almost nothing. Is this Olexandrya’s soul at work? Have I been underestimating it?
Ahead, Rakel trades blows with the snake. She catches one of its arms and strikes it in the chest.
I level the sword and charge.
The snake whirls, and Rakel hops easily over a tail sweep. But the snake just drops and spins a second time, swatting Rakel out of the air with another sweep.
Rakel lands and rolls into the courtyard.
“Demon!” I call.
The snake turns to me, head tilting. Its blonde curls settle over its face. It raises its hands, taking the same pose as earlier. Palms together; one up and one down.
“I can do it,” it says. “What am I missing?”
“Stop!”
I thrust my sword arm, and the blade extends, closing the gap.
But a spider lunges, taking the blow for the snake. Its body is ripped apart.
Why? Does the snake have control of them?
The snake’s mana pours out, hitting me like a wall. My blade dissolves and my run is pushed to a halt.
“Heaven Ascent: Deep Twisting World Of Starvation.”
Nothing. Again.
The snake shakes its head.
Two spiders fall in, lumbering at me.
“Is it… not enough?” The snake aims a hand at Rakel as she gets up.
I charge again.
These monsters are only going to get worse. Unless Pepper disrupts the seal. But I’m more than certain that isn’t going to happen.
“Are you capable of casting Heaven Ascent?” the snake asks, watching Rakel. “Show me, would you?”
“Sorry,” Rakel says. “We can’t give you an example.”
“Carnal Haze!” I jump and thrust both hands. The golden fire explodes against the snake, sending it skidding into the courtyard. It slams into a fountain, cracking the stone.
Rakel rushes in, kicking the snake further into the fountain. The water splashes, raining around them.
I run after them.
Rakel catches a tail and yanks, swinging the snake overhead.
The snake laughs before it’s slammed into the ground. The brick cracks beneath it.
“Hit her with your fire!” Rakel snaps.
“Heartsworn Blade!” I will the blade into being and it encompasses my arm.
The tail snaps up as I swing down at the snake. Flames meet flesh and tear through. The snake screams as I cleave her tail in half, scorching the flesh as I do.
But in the middle of all of it, the snake puts it’s hands together again. The same pose.
“Heaven Ascent: Deep Twisting World Of Starvation!” The snake screams it this time.
The blast of mana is violent. I’m blown off my feet. I land against one of the spiders, knocking it to the ground.
Rakel crashes through the window of a shop.
My head spins and I collapse beneath the spider. It rears up, raising it’s mandibles. Above, the nearby buildings wobble and windows shatter.
But nothing, again. Another fluke. The mana is getting stronger. Each time, the blast is bigger. At this rate, it’ll kill us long before the snake pulls off a Heaven Ascent.
Rakel runs to my side, knocking the spider away as I get up.
The snake lays on the ground, bloody tail flopping pathetically.
“What are you doing?” I hiss. “Don’t worry about me, attack!”
“We have to attack together,” Rakel says. “That thing is strong. But it’s not absurdly strong.” She grabs a spider by the leg and turns on her heel, throwing it into a nearby building. She meets my eyes. “If I can get a direct hit with a Hollow Core, I can kill it.”
“You did! Back in that building!”
“No,” Rakel says. “She dodged at the last second.”
The massive bat swoops down, wings folding. Wind whips through the courtyard.
What’s left of the snake’s tail coils like a spring beneath it.
“Rakel! Launch yourself at her!”
“What? How?”
I shake both arms and the flames scatter like embers in the air around me.
“Dancing Aces!” I twist my arms and the embers blaze into blazing golden bulbs. They streak across the courtyard at the snake. It’s my fourth second-class spell and things are working fine.
Rakel runs after the flames. What is she doing? Why isn’t she compressing her mana? Is she that low?
The snake’s tail uncoils in an instant, propelling it into the air.
I jerk my arms, redirecting most of the flames up.
The streaks twist, some of them making broad turns and skipping off the bricks. They scatter into the air under the snake.
The bat’s wings flap, and a tornado spins into being beneath it. The flames are blown back. The courtyard is whipped into a maelstrom of dead spiders.
Rakel grabs my arm and plants her foot into the bricks for leverage. I’m basically a sheet in the wind, clinging to her to keep myself steady.
I watch as the bat retreats higher into the air.
“It’s going to kill us,” I say as the wind peters out. “We’ve lost.”
“What?”
“We’ve lost! All it has to do is keep piling these monsters on us and keep trying Heaven Ascent. One way or another, we die!”
Rakel’s mouth falls open.
Sure enough, the sky darkens with more creatures. Another massive centipede crashes into the next street over.
A one-eyed giant breaks his neck landing in one of the buildings by the courtyard.
A gryphon swoops low, swiping at me with its talons.
I shriek, throwing up my arms without thinking. The talons slash my forearms and I stagger back. Then, a blow comes from behind.
A two foot tall red goblin swings his club again, but I kick it out of his hands.
“Pepper,” Rakel says, driving her fist through a golem. “She’ll disrupt that seal.”
“Pepper may be dead!” I yell, beating the goblin down with it’s own club. “We can’t rely on that!”
“Why did you stay?” Rakel snaps. “If you’re just gonna give up now? Make up your mind!”
“I didn’t have much of a choice! The fight came to me!”
Rakel flares her nostrils.
“You haven’t known Pepper as long as I have. So you probably haven’t felt it.”
I turn, flinging the club into the gryphon’s head as it swoops for another attack. The gryphon spirals and crashes into the destroyed fountain.
“Feel what?”
“I didn’t feel it myself until that snake started summoning all these creatures. But it’s there. Pepper’s mana at work.”
I stare at her.
The centipede crashes through one of the buildings, spilling into the courtyard. Its mandibles open, and it lets loose a spray of white fire.
Rakel grabs me and jumps to the side. We’re airborne for a moment before we crash into the brick and roll.
Rakel is up in a heartbeat, flinging me over her shoulder.
The centipede’s flames sweep across the courtyard, swallowing up corpses and rubble alike.
Pepper’s mana… I never considered it until now. But I’ve never detected her mana before. I always assumed she’d simply been that weak.
But now that I’m looking for it, I sense something. It’s buried within the ocean that is the snake’s mana. But it’s there. A bell in the distance, deep below us.
Rakel jumps, catches a window a story up and kicks off the wall. She scales the building in moments and lands on the slanted roof.
The centipede turns, angling the flamethrower up at us.
“What do you suggest, then?” I call as Rakel runs along the roof. Behind us, white flames spreads across the tiles, shooting out across the nearby buildings.
“We have to hold out!”
The bat is hardly a speck in the sky, obscured by another wave of creatures raining down. Skeletons. It’s all skeletons. A cloud of them flooding the sky.
And there it is. A spike. I’m paying attention so I feel her mana spike. What is she doing? Could she be tampering with the seal?
“Here come more!” I yell, smacking Rakel in the back. “Heads up!”
The centipede moves, charging through the building beneath us. I feel the structure shift beneath Rakel’s feet.
Skeletons pelt the roof, most of them shattering on impact.
“Compress your mana!” I order. “Launch yourself!”
Rakel runs faster as the roof behind us caves in.
“I don’t know how!” she yells back. She crouches and leaps off the roof. The courtyard spins beneath us.
I remember Pepper’s spell. The incorporeal hand and the dismantling of her body. Maybe she doesn’t need soul class magic. Maybe she can access the seal through that weird magic of hers.
My thoughts are interrupted as Rakel pulls me in front of her. She curls around me as we smash through a wall. We roll into a bedroom and hit the edge of a bed, sending it skidding into the back wall.
Rakel heaves, dropping me in her lap. I roll away from her, panting.
“How can you move like that?” I rasp. “If you aren’t using mana to propel yourself?”
“Propel myself? I just jump. Mana is inside. I just use it to power my spells.”
I stare at her, unable to comprehend the nonsense she’s spewing. Does that mean all that strength and physicality is just her physical ability? That’s absurd!
I push off the floor.
“I felt it,” I say, deciding to move on. “Pepper’s mana.”
Rakel scoffs.
“Don’t lie. I can hardly feel it myself.”
“I’m not lying.” I stand on wobbly legs.
Through the crumbling wall, the centipede writhes in the courtyard, surrounded by flames.
“We don’t have time to waste,” I say. “We’re risking Olexandrya. These monsters could be drawn to her mana. Even if Pepper is working on fixing the seal. The monsters are already here and the snake is still a problem.”
Rakel sits up with a groan.
“I’m scared,” I say. “But I’m going to fight. Because I want to get out of here alive.”
“Do what?”
Second-class spells weren’t as bad as I expected. And wasting time will only risk everything. All I can do is fight.
“I’m going to cast a first-class spell.”