by Envy Mercury
“I find it a fair bit entertaining Felera, I haven’t heard anyone speak to us in such a way before.”
“Well, I am bored, Degath. Bored! Bored! Bored!” Felera said as she stomped her feet, having a little tantrum. I guess she was the kid that would wait in the car when you go to the store.
Degath ignored her, focused on me. “We have no mothers or mother. Our father created us.”
“Impressive,” I said. Sarcastically, of course. Sarcasm was lost to the children beings, as Degath continued like I was sincere with my comment.
“Our father, the Dark Lord, is imposing and powerful.”
“As wonderful as this history lesson of your family heritage is, I have things to do, places to go. People to see as they say.” I looked at them, putting a little menace in my expression.
“What will you do? You can bearly stand. All you seem to be good at is running your mouth with silly words,” Felera said. Degath flicked his fingers in the air, and lightning struck close to my proximity. Not close enough to do anything, but it did make me jump a little bit. The little fucker was smiling at me. I guess that is where the clouds came from.
“I am good at being a failure, and I am a pretty good junkie. Can’t win them all, ya know? But only need to win sometimes,” I said. Then I reached in and pulled out my bog marrow, looking at it.
Degath snickered, “Is that bog marrow?”
“Maybe he is interesting,” Felera chuckled.
My women, as I called them now, they weren’t laughing. They had slight looks of disappointment in their eyes. Not as bad as the looks Mew gave me, but the look was there. Apparently, this stuff was pretty bad. What can you do? Down the hatch and all that, or in this case up the nose. I felt I didn’t have much to lose at that moment, so I said fuck it. I had only taken small pinches of the stuff so far. This time I brought it all up to my nose, and I took in every last bit, then let out a sigh as it started to creep into my system.
The children, Yumi, and Mecci, all of their eyes got wide.
“I guess you do have some surprises!” Degath exclaimed, motioned the other two children to come closer to him. Then did a few flicks of his fingers and put up what seemed to be a forcefield of air. “You sacrifice yourself in vain to destroy us, though you will have a grand explosion from that much fairy dust, it will not penetrate my shield.”
“Crazy and foolish,” Felera said. “Oh, well.”
“Fairy dust?” I questioned.
They creepily laughed hysterically, “Yes, bog marrow, also known as fairy dust. It is fascinating that someone such as you, a fake hero, would use it. For it is a sin of nature.”
That doesn’t sound good.
“Taking the dust of fairies kills them, thus the sin of nature. Instead of them gifting you a mana boost, you steal it from them. It isn’t as effective as them giving it to you, and it is also unstable. Too much and the power will literally make you explode when you can’t handle it,” Felera said, continuing to laugh. “You have sinned and have also given yourself a death sentence. It will do nothing to help you. You are going to surely die.”
That was the moment I felt it surge in my body. The pain was unimaginable. It raced through my blood like fire, pulsing gold light that would be my death. It felt like my blood was boiling inside me, fighting to burst out. It was the most horrible I had ever felt in my life so far, and it would be the last thing I knew.
Then I screamed.
I screamed so loud it had to have been heard for miles. I screamed so loud I couldn’t hear my women sobbing or the children laughing hysterically. I dropped to my knees, the grass burning away from me as the heat blew off away from my body. This seemed to continue for what felt like forever. My voice was hoarse at a loss. Then only silence, a sweet nothing of feeling, and no sound at all. Had the dust ended me? Was I now a spirit full of sin or whatever it was they meant? Then my senses came back to me.
If I could have seen myself the way everyone else saw me at that moment, I would have seen me crouched low down on one knee- a golden power combining and adding to my strength. My muscles firm and robust, weakness gone. A light golden glow escaping my eyeholes. At that moment, I was power.
I was powerful, and I felt it. I stood back up, opening my eyes to gaze upon my surroundings. Yumi and Mecci had tears running down their faces, but they had looks of shock as I looked around. The children weren’t laughing anymore. I slowly drew my sword as it filled with bright mana, surging with power as it vibrated and hummed in the tight, firm grip of my hand. I whipped my blade sideways out from me. It left a trail of light behind it. I started surging a mana ball in my left hand, this one wasn’t small like the ones before. It kept growing and growing in power. It was about the size of a basketball. It was full of hunger and wanted to feed. I would let it.
“Children.”
They looked at me, still confused expressions on their faces.
“I’m tired of your shit.”
I pointed my left hand towards them, and with a flick, I released the ball of concussive destruction their way. It flew towards them, and they flinched as it struck Degath’s magical shield. My ball of mana produced a paramount explosion of bright light that decimated the land behind them. The ground was black where they were standing, the destruction slowly spreading out at angles behind that. It wiped out the landscape for about half a mile behind them.
They were still on their feet, but they were much worse for wear. They definitely would need new clothing. What they wore was trashed. It was torn and burned in sections, as was their skin. They had bloody noses, and a bit of blood ran from their ears.
Degath took a breath to speak, but I didn’t want to hear what they had to preach to me anymore. I whipped my sword back across me as my body fired like a bullet towards them, my feet leaving burnt footprints with every step I took in my sprint towards them. The girl was the easiest target, so I went after her first. She looked calm and collected as I swung across, a swipe that would have decapitated any other with the swiftness and strength behind it. She quickly dodged it, ducking under. I kept bringing fast strikes her way, she kept dodging, she didn’t escape my foot when I combined a kick with a sword attack. She went flying back into a half-destroyed tree, wrecking it even further.
I swung back around towards Degath, he dodged my first attack, but he wasn’t as fast as Felera. My sword brushed his hand, cutting it. I almost had him.
“Unnon, help!” Degath pleaded.
Unnon brought his two swords against mine as we fought. He was skilled, and he was fast. He also had the benefit of dual wield to keep up with me. Our swords rang out. I got a light hit on him. He cut me as well. This went on a while until I remembered my sword used mana. About time I used that benefit. He raised both swords to block me as I surged a tremendous amount of mana into my blade, it lit up a gold blue. It cut through his blades like butter, his face priceless. He evaded my attack and then retreated back to the other children.
Felera shot forward in front of the other children, firing from her fingers' metallic-like cables wrapped around my body, trapping my sword arm. Squeezing with tremendous pressure, the metal cable lines forced my arm against my body, causing my sword to be lost from my grip. With my left hand free, I raised it into the air, pumping all the mana I could into a ball of death. I laughed hysterically. It was growing massive, and once again, I saw fear in the demon children’s eyes. Degath was trying to cast something, but my sword had ruined his hand too much for it to work correctly.
The ball of death grew above me, it was about the size of a car, and they were about to meet their end.
The demon children had reflections of my magic reflecting in their eyes. Their eyes wide, like televisions projecting the image of the death that was about to come their way. They knew they were doomed, and there was nothing they could do about it. They are royally fucked.
I was about to release that massive power when I realized something. My mana was becoming close to being used up, my anger o
f the situation and the bog marrow's side effects beginning to decrease bit by bit. With that decrease, I started losing the whole megalomaniac persona and my thoughts cleared. Yes, I could kill these high-powered demons quickly. I just had to let it go. I couldn’t do it, though, and not because I didn’t want to kill them. I very much, in fact, did.
I can’t kill the girls too.
I looked at my women. The fear on their faces proved I was doing the opposite of what I came to do. I came to save them. What have I done? I didn’t save them. I almost killed them.
I am a fucking failure.
I released the power straight up above me into the sky. Then the exhaustion hit me like a city bus speeding on the interstate. I slumped; the power was gone. I collapsed to the ground.
“What!?” Degath laughed maniacally, covering his mouth with his hand. “Seriously, you didn’t kill us?” He looked at his companions, “He didn’t kill us.”
“He didn’t,” Felera said. “No idea why when he had the upper hand.”
Unnon simply walked over and just nodded his agreement.
I was on my back looking up at the sky, I couldn’t see very well, and I was dizzy. I could still notice that there was a large eye in the middle of the dark clouds where my ball of power ripped through, and they were swirling around and organizing into a storm. Wow, that magic was some potent stuff.
Degath walked over to me and lightly kicked me in my side. “That fairy dust can be potent for sure. I don’t know why you didn’t explode, but it was very entertaining.” He bent down towards me, snickering. “I very much enjoyed the part where we didn’t die.”
The evil child looked over towards Unnon while still leaning over me. “Unnon, would you be a dear and fetch her sword and then his sword and bring them over to me.” He received a funny look from Unnon. “No, no, no! I don’t want to replace your swords with those, even I know that won’t work, just bring them over here to me.”
The swords were handed to Degath, and he looked down at me, “Pick him up and put him against this tree by us.” I was picked up by his cohorts and setup to stand up against the tree. “What is your name, failure?”
I am a failure. I never changed.
I tried to speak, but it came out as rasp breathing sounds and noise, not words. They couldn’t understand me.
I finally got a word out. “Beck…”
“Your name is Beck? I’ve never heard of anyone called Beck,” Degath said before pausing a moment. “Well, Beck, you should have killed us. Maybe you just didn’t know better, but I can teach you how to do it.”
He lifted up Yumi’s sword looking at it and bending it so that the light reflected into my face. “This is a fine weapon. Don’t you think so, Beck? I think it will work just fine.” He giggled as he turned the blade, so the tip pointed up towards my neck, it nicked me slightly, causing blood to trickle down onto my shirt. “Very sharp, I wonder if it is sharp enough to cut trees? Do you think it is Beck?” I just looked at him.
Please don’t kill the girls.
I felt pain in my stomach, horrible pain. It wasn’t as bad as the pain from the bog marrow I took, so at least there was that. I glanced down and saw the sword was stabbed into my abdominal area. I could still see some blade. He stuck it through me and deep into the tree. The wind was starting to pick up a little more. I raised my eyes to look up at the clouds above, as I was too weak to lift my head. The clouds were tightening up, filling in the eye, and rotating faster.
I felt more pain as I saw the other sword stuck in me and into the tree. “Ah, that one didn’t go as deep. No matter. We can just try again.” He reached back up to grab the sword when there was a crashing sound. A funnel cloud was dropping down; apparently, my magic caused a disturbance enough to create a tornado. Well, fuck my life.
“Felera, Unnon! Grab those girls, that one is Yumi, and stupid Victor wants her. The other we can take too,” Degath ordered.
The girls were picked up, and I looked towards them. They had sadness and horror mixed in their eyes. I mouthed the word sorry to them. They apparently noticed because they just started to cry.
“Felera, make a portal to Victors. We don’t have time to play around with our prey. This storm will rip us to shreds.” Degath looked back towards me. “He will either bleed to death, or the storm will get him. He can live this moment over and over in his head while he dies.”
A portal opened in the air. It was like a rip tore open reality. The children that were stealing my women stepped through, and then it closed behind them. Just like that, they were gone.
I am a failure. I am so sorry.
Chapter Nine
Mew was running.
She didn’t know if she had ever run this fast in her life. Even when the Troika Blood crossed paths with her earlier and she escaped with her tricks and speed, she didn’t move this fast. She knew her returning wouldn’t disappoint Lady Yumi because she followed her orders. It was her oath to do so. Obviously, Mew was told to guide the rest of the guild to safety as a way for Yumi to remove her from a hopeless situation to keep her safe. She completed the task, and now she could do what she wanted to do. Right now, she wanted to fucking run.
She ran faster.
Mew took everyone to a nearby village to hide. She felt it was the best thing she could do in the circumstances to keep them safe. After organizing everyone’s safety in the village, Mew pleaded to a man that owned a potion shop for his help. She didn’t know him very well, but he knew of her, and he respected Lady Yumi. The man’s respect for Yumi contributed to Mew scoring some health and mana potions.
Mew was a little dirty, but she was in tip-top health, she didn’t even finish walking out of the potion shop, and she already downed a couple of the mana and health potions. The satchel that hung off her shoulder, bouncing with every step she took, contained the precious cargo of extra potions. She jumped over a downed tree and weaved between some brush. Her sensitive nose picked up the scent of sulfur and fire. Something was burning, that was for sure, probably from all the vast explosions after that horrible scream. With the extra sensitive hearing cat ears gave her, she thought she heard a bearly audible scream. It had been pretty far away, but she heard it. It was so agonizing; she had a feeling deep down it was Rezner. He had no chance at helping anyone in his state, but the fool still left to try.
That dummy.
She was pretty pissed that he was using the fairy dust. She was angry because it could mix up his mind, and if he wasn’t thinking straight, he could get people killed from fucking up. She wasn’t mad that he did it. She was upset that he had hidden it. Everyone has faults. Shit can happen. A mixed-up mind wasn’t from the dust itself; it was part of the sin. Stealing what the fairies could give you as a gift was just wrong. Killing them was worse and put a curse on the stolen dust in a way. It was like it turned into dark magic instead of light. Mew didn’t know why it did that. It just happened. Only the desperate used the dust. She couldn’t understand why Rezner would need to.
Mew knew she had a hard time expressing her feelings. She also had a hard time sorting her thoughts. It took her some time to think things through. She wasn’t sure if Rezner knew what ingredients were used when creating bog marrow. He wasn’t from this world. He didn’t know shit sometimes. She wanted to talk to him more about it, and for that to happen, he needed to be alive. She had to find him.
He kissed your forehead.
She shook her head and screamed. Why the fuck did he do that, she had enough emotional problems. Part of her knew that she just wanted to see him again, besides just asking him about the dust. She really cared for that fuck up. Mew didn’t get close to people because she was afraid of what could happen to them. She had lost so much in her past, it would kill her to have it happen again. When Mew first met him, she lied and got him in a hell of a mess. She had to talk to him and also apologize for doing that to him.
You love him.
No, that couldn’t be it. Rezner was just kind, handsome, funn
y, powerful, and… fuck!
She skidded to a stop, catching her breath as there was a loud boom, and a vast amount of magic power climbed upward, practically ripping the sky open. It was dazzling and probably the most magic she had seen in a single cast spell. That had to be the location of where they were, and it had to be Rezner that created that magic. She knew of the Troika Blood and the magic they possessed. She knew more than most as they were a big part of her horrible past, another reason she was so scared of them.
That couldn’t be their magic tearing up the sky. One of them could control elemental magic, and it didn’t work at all like that large mana blast. Another was a skilled swordsman, but he could also do mind control when he spoke. Then, the girl had short-term precognition to a degree, letting her know what would happen. She also had these horrible metal strings that spawned out of her fingers.
She was almost there when the wind started to pick up, stopping her in her tracks. She brushed away her hair that blew into her face, and her ears twitched as she listened to the environment. A bad storm was coming fairly soon. That was a fact. Mew looked up at the sky where the magic hit the clouds, and they were spinning and condensing into a tornado. Overkill much, Rezner?
The dummy, dum dum.
It frustrated her that she had to wait and not get there any sooner. Even she couldn’t compete with nature. Stupid tornadoes, they could be such a pain in the ass. Her ears twitched as she aggressively tapped her foot. Patience wasn’t her virtue, as all she could do was watch the tornado aggressively destroy everything it touched below. The good thing about the tornado is she also knew that the Troika Blood couldn’t compete with it either. Maybe Rezner didn’t fuck up this time.
You should praise him.
“No, I’ll call him a fucking idiot!” She screamed into the wind. After a few moments, the tornado started to break apart, and the wind began to die down. “Finally!” Mew started sprinting towards the destruction that the tornado had caused.