Book 3. Chapter 33

  “When things don't go your way.” Part 2

  *****

  She probably ran out of mana. Kalysto thought, noting that at no time did she see Morrigan absorbing mana crystals as she had been doing on several occasions during the battle.

  Seth, with his long black hair and eyes of the same color, frowned as he saw where his audience was looking, noticing half of the dark priestess' body lying on the ground.

  He closed his eyes for a second and let out a prolonged sigh, before opening them again.

  “I Seth-Mainyu, son of the god Ygaerae, conqueror and destroyer of worlds, summon you my avatars. Come to me, hear my voice, and follow my call. Let death not be your end but a little rest that has just ended,” as he recited the spell. His pale body began to glow, the ether within him glowing brightly. “Hear my call, my avatars, I summon you!”

  Morrigan's body began to tremble before transforming into a swirl of shadows that traveled to position itself directly in front of its master.

  Thin strands of light that belonged to the glow that streamed from the god's body, detached from it, slithering through the air like tiny water snakes until they reached the mass of shadows that were once the remains of Morrigan's body.

  The glowing threads of ether connected with the black formless mass and slowly, very slowly, began to shape it. The mass began to lengthen, gaining height. Then the subtle curves of a female figure began to become visible followed by her long hair.

  A few seconds earlier, as Seth began to recite his spell,

  Kalysto watched everything with open curiosity, while she felt a kind of tug, a strange joy vibrating inside her.

  Aegir for his part, was not so calm.

  “I can't take us both, but I can send you back and get you to safety,” he whispered suddenly next to her, making her jump with fright.

  “What?” she whispered until she noticed the soft lines of mana that began to slowly draw on the ground beneath them. “Take Tsuki! Get him in your shadow and run away!” She insisted, more worried for them than for her.

  I just have to wait for my mana to charge up. 170,000 MP will be enough to get me the hell out of here! She thought, excited at the prospect of the three of them being able to survive despite the enormous amount of mana she had been spending to heal them.

  “I'll buy you some time,” she said, thinking that at least they could save themselves in case she died before they could escape.

  But contrary to her sudden excitement, Aegir didn't seem at all happy with her answer.

  “...I can't,” he apologized looking at her with infinite regret, ”In order to use my shadow as storage I need to have the shadow manipulation skill at least at level ten, and all my skills are at level one right now.”

  “...Then leave, go somewhere safe, and get to safety!”

  “I'm not going anywhere until I know you're safe!” He murmured taking her hand, and squeezing it affectionately, wanting to convey once again all that she meant to him. “I'll send you first. We'll see what I can do while he's busy reviving Morrigan,” he concluded, looking into her eyes.

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  How touching! -Seth scoffed as a small portal opened over his hand and from it a small sphere of color-changing energy emerged. But neither of you can escape from me -he added with a smile plagued by himself as the black mass in female form continued to recreate Morrigan's physical body.

  Seth did not even move from where he was so as not to interrupt the spell, while the ether strands continued to recreate the new body of the dark saintess.

  Now little Kalysto, it's a shame that we must part ways when we finally meet. But you see, we have a little problem. You did a very stupid thing,” he added patiently, like someone explaining a life lesson to a small child. I am the only living God with two avatars and one of them cannot answer my call because her soul is fragmented,” he explained, but a second later his face abandoned all trace of kindness... ”And all this is your fault! And this is all your fault! You absorbed a large part of her soul!

  Dozens of dark crystal spikes formed out of nowhere, attacking them.

  Quickly Aegir tried to create a shield to protect them, but it was useless. The shield shattered into thousands of pieces and Kalysto had to transform into shadows leaving only one hand with physical form to grab the demon king by the waist and quickly dodge the familiar black crystal stakes as she moved farther and farther away from where Tsuki was, finishing recovering.

  Shit, but even their attacks look alike! The thought flashed through her mind as she remembered that she had seen Persephone do something slightly similar, in fact, she learned how to create the black mana stakes from what she had seen Persephone and Aegir do.

  “Master!” Fenrir shouted in her mind, worried for her.

  “Don't even think of coming here!” she scolded him immediately, knowing that having the full focus of the god's wrath it wasn't safe for him to be near her right now.

  Dark mana tentacles sprouted from Seth's back and more black crystal stakes sprouted from them like guns, all aimed at Kalysto, who had to finish materializing her body to charge Aegir.

  “Let's split up!” said Aegir. And Kalysto immediately threw him away from her. The demon king was agile enough to land gracefully.

  Just as she had thought, Seth stopped attacking Aegir and concentrated only on her.

  “Even though I promised little Persephone not to kill you, I don't think I can keep that promise anymore,” he added with a sinister smile. “Now because of you, I will have to personally take on the tedious task of extracting what is left of her soul that is in your body.”

  Several waves of darkness erupted from his body. The first two destroyed the entire floor of the huge courtyard that had become the battlefield. Even the altar behind him did not survive the attack.

  The ground shook beneath Kalysto's feet, barely giving her time to pull out the duplicate she had of the demon king's sword. Duplicating it and throwing it to him to protect himself as best he could while she ran to where Tsuki was lying, still recovering.

  Shit! I'll have to take out one of the corpses so I can get Tsuki back into my shadow! The problem was, she didn't know which one to get rid of. And if she took out any of Alice's grandparents, Alice would never forgive her.

  Still, Tsuki's life was more important than theirs.

  Another wave of darkness came swiftly before she could reach her destination. But unlike all the attacks she had seen so far a thick mist came out of Seth, spreading and advancing into the surroundings like the waves of the sea spread out on the shore of the beach.

  The fairy champion recognized the strange texture of the dark mist at once.

  “Miasma,” she whispered, fearfully. Knowing full well all that the fairy queen had to fight through it.

  Everything the black miasma touched withered until it finally turned to ash.

  The pattern was all too familiar to her.

  “The black plague” she whispered without being able to believe it. Immediately, fear seized her, running with more strength while evading the parts of the ground that separated as if it were an earthquake. While she jumped between the small islands that protruded from the ground and tried to reach where Tsuki was, at the same time she observed how the lower legs of her pet had been hit by the miasma.

  Just as she feared, he too began to turn to stone, as did Aegir to her left.

  “Dispel Ezhil!” She conjured several times until the miasma dissipated around her and her pet.

  As soon as the golden light of her ability dissipated the miasma returned with the force of a raging wave, almost hitting her.

  “Dispel Ezhil! Dispel Ezhil!” unfortunately for the former saintess, the problem was that while she was immune to the black plague, neither Tsuki nor Aegir were.

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