Turning another corner, she and Fellis ran into a dead end. Fellis cursed. Enyo smiled.
“Damn it! Now we’re trapped!”
“It’s fine.”
“W-what?” Fellis looked her way. “E-Enyo?”
“Don’t worry. I can deal with them.”
The smile on Enyo’s face widened as she turned to face the incoming horde. Undead filled the passage. They were like a tidal wave of decomposing bodies.
“Attero. Consumo. Erado. Perimo. Vasto. Extinguo.”
There was a strong tug on her navel as magic was pulled from her to power the spell. It traveled through body, flowed up her back and down her arm, and was unleashed from the palm of her hand—a massive wave of dark fire. It surged across the passage, consuming everything in its sight. The undead were annihilated, the walls were incinerated, the floor disappeared. Nothing could withstand it. When the attack ended, all that remained was a massive trench that must have been at least a kilometer long.
Her attack complete, Enyo came to. She was horrified.
“Oh…” She held a hand to her mouth. “I… I can’t believe… I did it again…”
“Enyo…” Fellis started, only to trail off, as if unsure of what to say.
“Why? Why can’t I control my bloodlust like you can? Fellis… why am I so different?”
Fellis hesitated for a moment. “I suppose it’s because of your heritage. You might have been sired by the Dark Lord, but do not forget that you also have a mother.”
Her mother. Enyo had never met the woman who’d given birth to her, not for any reason like she’d been abandoned or something, but because her mother was dead. When she was old enough to understand, she’d been told that her mom had died at childbirth.
“Your mother was a human, which is who you received your light magic from,” Fellis continued. “Being half human means you are unable to fully control your bloodlust like most members of the Dark Clan.”
The fact that her mom had been a human was a secret. To the best of her knowledge, her father had even gone out of his way to keep this information from the Dark Council. In fact, the only person who she believed knew about this was Fellis, and that was because Fellis had been her mother’s lady-in-waiting before becoming Enyo’s maid.
“It’s times like these that make me wish I’d been born fully human,” Enyo muttered.
Bloodlust was a powerful driving force among the Dark Clan, and Alucard, being the Dark Lord, had a particularly strong bloodlust, which Enyo had inherited. Thanks to that, every moment that she was locked in combat was a struggle against herself. The Dark Clan part of her loved fighting, loved battle and violence and killing. The human part hated it and everything about it. This duality was another reason she wanted to travel to Jacob’s world. Maybe if she lived in another world, one where she didn’t have to fight, her struggle could finally be put to rest.
“Come on, Enyo.” Fellis placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s put an end to this by finding that necromancer and making him regret what he did to these women.”
“Yeah… you’re right.”
Standing up, Enyo regained her bearings, screwed up her emotions, and followed Fellis. With pretty much all the undead—or at least most of them—having been destroyed, it was easier to reach the temple.
Now that she was up close, Enyo could definitely say it was a temple. The walls were made of large stone blocks. Massive and worn, with cracks spreading along much of the structure, the temple showed its age. Honestly, it was a miracle the thing was still standing.
They walked past numerous evenly spaced columns. A flight of stairs marked the entrance. There was no door, just a large open space. She and Fellis walked right in.
Darkness. Everything aside from the entrance was cast in shadow. She could barely see a meter in front of her.
“Lux.”
Creating a ball of light with a simple incantation, Enyo illuminated the room. It looked like a great hall. As she and Fellis walked further in, their footsteps echoing ominously, she showered light in multiple directions to take in the scene. The walls were all painted with murals. She couldn’t quite tell what the murals were about, but they featured what she guessed were humans and dragons. The humans were all on the ground, kneeling as if in prayer. The dragons were devouring the humans.
That’s not a very pretty picture.
At the end of the hall sat a dais. A broken chair that might have been a thrown at one time, but was now a derelict piece of stone, was the only remnant to suggest this place belonged to someone important. Enyo imagined people coming to this place, perhaps to worship the dragons in those murals. Perhaps the one who sat in that chair had been a priest or a king.
“Enyo, shine some light behind that throne.”
Doing as instructed, Enyo directed the light to illuminate a portion of the wall. There was a large door. She imagined that the door had once been a magnificent piece of architecture, but now it was just like everything else. Faded. Aging. It looked like it was made of bronze, but it was covered in rust and stains. She wondered if it would even open.
“Do you think you can slice through that with your magic?” Fellis asked.
Enyo bit her lip. “Maybe.”
She walked up to the door. Pressing her hands against it, she studied it, though she didn’t know what she was looking for. In the end, all she could do was attempt to slice through the door with her magic.
Should I use light magic or dark magic?
Dark magic was excellent when it came to destroying things, but it was also indiscriminate. Even blades created from darkness had a bad habit of destroying more than necessary. Light magic, the offensive kind, was great for precision work, but she didn’t know if it would pack enough power to slice through this door.
Let’s try light magic first.
If light magic proved ineffective, she’d go with dark magic. That said, she really hoped the light magic would work. Enyo didn’t want to use her dark magic right now.
“Lumen. Lamina. Segmentum.”
Enyo felt the tug on her navel. She held out her hand. Light coalesced, gathering particles of photonic energy soon became a single, solid entity. Then it took shape. A handle formed within her hand. The blade thinned, becoming sharp. Forming on the end was a tip, while the area above her hand became a crossguard.
Enyo didn’t really use swords because she’d been trained with daggers, but daggers probably wouldn’t have been thick enough to cut through this door. Enyo took a deep breath. She slid her feet along the ground, bending her knees. Bringing the sword up to her face, she thrust it forward, impaling the door.
She met with resistance. Gritting her teeth, she shoved further, further, until her blade was buried all the way to the hilt. Then she brought the blade down. Her arms shook, muscles strained. Enyo wasn’t that strong physically. Her style relied on stabbing weak points or enhancing her dagger’s cutting power with magic. While magic was being used here, this door seemed to be obnoxiously resistant to her light sword.
After what felt like hours, Enyo finally managed to cut a misshapen hole through the door. She wiped the sweat from her brow and sighed.
“Ugh, that was way harder than it should have been.”
“Think of it this way.” Fellis smiled as she walked past her. “At least you were able to give your magic a good workout.”
“Work out, my butt,” Enyo muttered. She was exhausted. Even her bones felt brittle from having expended so much energy.
The interior was dark, but with Enyo’s light to guide them, they were able to see that the next area was a tunnel. The walls were even more dilapidated here. Cracks spread along every inch—except for the places where entire chunks of the wall were missing. Likewise, the floor was broken, and the fragments made some places unstable to walk on. Enyo almost fell when her foot smacked a section of the floor that had been upturned.
“I wonder what kind of place this used to be?” she pondered out loud.
“Well, it’s obviously a temple,” Fellis said. “I imagine this was a place where the draconians used to live.”
Draconians were a rare species of half-human, half-dragon hybrids. They’d been created by the Dark Lord Catus in the war two thousand years ago. No one knew if the draconians were still alive. According to the few records in her former home, they had very low birth rates due to their longevity. Draconians could live for around one thousand years. They might have died out by now.
There was another door at the end of the hall, though this one was already demolished. Stepping through, Enyo and Fellis were greeted by a foul stench and a strange light that came from the center of the room. There was a magic circle in the room. It glowed brightly, though its color was dark—a deep purple that emitted a vile sensation. Just being in the room with it made her skin crawl.
There was a person standing in the center of that circle. Cloaked from head to toe in darkness, she could see nothing about them beyond the curve of their chin and the twist of their lips. They were pale, but it wasn’t the kind of natural paleness like members of the Dark Clan possessed. It was more like a chalky, never-goes-outside sort of pale.
“What’s this? Guests?” The man, for that voice could have only been a man, tilted his head. “How odd. I didn’t expect to have any guests so soon. I don’t even have food prepared for you.”
“You’re a necromancer, right?” Fellis asked, stepping forward. “I’m guessing you’re the one who murdered all those women?”
“Murdered? Me? Murdered? No, sorry. I don’t murder people. The only thing I do is grant them new life.”
Enyo clutched her daggers more tightly. “Turning them into undead isn’t granting them new life! It’s turning innocent people into abominations!”
The man sighed. “You clearly understand nothing. Ignorance like that is unbecoming from people like you. I can tell from your magic and appearance that you’re both members of the Dark Clan. Surely two from the clan of darkness can recognize my work for what it is.”
“The only thing I recognize is that you murdered those poor women to satisfy your twisted desires,” Enyo snarled.
“Don’t bother talking to him, Enyo,” Fellis declared. “This man isn’t going to listen to reason. He’s clearly lost his mind.”
“What a cruel thing to say,” the man said. “I don’t much appreciate being insulted by my guests. Still, I suppose it is my lucky day. I was just about to do an experiment, and you two will make excellent guinea pigs.”
The magic circle lit up even more. Enyo was blinded by the brightness. Forced to close her eyes, she raised a hand to shield herself further from the light, only lowering her hand when the light died down.
Two new people were standing in the room, though they didn’t appear to be all there. One was female and the other male. Their well-muscled bodies flickered several times, as if they were fragile illusions. Scales covered their hands all the way up to their biceps, and long claws emerged from their fingers. They wore no shoes, but like their hands, their feet were scaly and clawed. Expressionless eyes gazed at her and Fellis.
“It seems my experiment was a success,” the man crowed. “Yes! After all these years of research, I’ve finally managed to summon draconians from beyond the grave!”
“This… doesn’t look good,” Enyo muttered.
Fellis sighed. “I’m beginning to regret letting you bring us here.”
Enyo was given no chance to retort, for the man, his lips pulled back into a depraved grin, pointed at them. “Go, my draconians. Slay these two foul creatures! Show them that my experiment is a success.”
The two draconians bent their knees. Enyo and Fellis tensed, but Enyo was dealing with more problems than her former maid. Her heart rate was picking up. She could feel her body growing warmer at the thought of combat. Blood surged through her veins as everything seemed to slow down.
Then the draconians blasted off the ground so fast that she could barely see them. Enyo yelped as she dove out of the way. Behind her, a loud rumble nearly burst her eardrums. She turned her head. The door that she had entered through was gone, as was most of the wall.
S-so much power!
Several meters to her right, Fellis was already engaged in combat with the female draconian, and it looked like she was having trouble. Unlike the male, the female fought more methodically. She’d charged until she was right in front of Fellis. Then she slashed out with her claws. It was dodged, Fellis contorting her body like she was boneless. Most attacks were narrowly avoided but a few weren’t. Some slashed through her clothes, and a line of blood flew through the air when the draconian drew a thin cut along her torso.
Enyo was no longer able to pay any attention to her former servant’s fight. The male draconian had emerged from the hole he’d made, and he was charging right at her again. He moved so fast, too. She barely had time to prepare before he was attacking her with his clawed hands. Unlike Fellis, who relied on dodging and contorting her body to avoid damage, Enyo used her daggers to deflect the attacks.
It proved harder than she’d imaged.
An overhead strike was blocked. Enyo thought her arms would snap like brittle twigs. When the draconian came in next with a series of vicious attacks, she moved backwards, angling her raised blades so each blow glanced off. Even with this, however, every attack sent her stumbling back. The strength of this draconian was so far above hers it wasn’t even funny.
The only thing that might hurt this creature is magic.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to cast a spell. Attacking her with a vicious claw thrust, the draconian nearly impaled her, but she swerved away at the last second. Even so, she could feel the air being cut.
I need to get some distance.
Backpedaling to avoid another swipe, Enyo didn’t even see the tail coming until it was already plowing into her stomach. She saw, more than felt, her body as it flew through the air. Everything passed by in a blur. The world spun. Then her mind was overridden with pain as she slammed into the ground.
“Enyo!” a shout came from somewhere in the distance. It sounded familiar, but Enyo couldn’t recall who it belonged to.
Blinking several times, Enyo tried everything she could to clear the cobwebs out of her head. It wasn’t until she saw a shadow looming over her that she remembered where she was.
Enyo rolled along the ground. A tail smashed into where she’d been laying, pulverizing the stone floor. She felt her eyes go wide when she saw the dent left by the tail.
If that had hit me—
Enyo wasn’t even able to complete her thought before the draconian turned to her. Scrambling to her feet, she rushed down the hall. She needed to somehow even the playing field. Behind her, the draconian roared, and the stomping of feet caused the ground to shake.
The hallway was long. She felt like she’d been running forever. The sounds of the draconian’s mad stomping and roars were getting closer. Enyo peeled her lips back and bared her teeth as she darted across the last few meters of space in the hallway. She rushed through the hole she’d made in the door, dashed past the dais, and then spun around and prepared to cast a spell.
She needn’t have bothered.
The draconian male hadn’t made it to where she was. He’d stopped halfway between the throne and the door, prowling back and forth as he snarled at her. She frowned. Why had he stopped chasing her? Why was he just walking back and forth? He’d been so intent on ripping her limb from limb that she was sure he’d have been eager to pounce the moment she stopped…
… Unless he can’t move past a certain point!
There was a lot that she didn’t know about necromancy, but she did know that it followed a set of rules. One of them was that the more powerful a creature was, the less distance it could traverse from the one who reanimated it. Like a tether attached to an animal, it couldn’t travel any further than a certain distance from its master.
Enyo didn’t hesitate to begin chanting.
; “Purgo. Procuro. Purifico. Perputo. Perpurigo. Purgatio.”
There was a massive tug on her navel as a good portion of her magic was drained from her body. Light emitted from her palms, coalescing into a bright golden orb that crackled in the center of her hands. Her legs shook. Her arms wavered. Yet she remained strong as massive amounts of energy gathered around her, until the orb had grown to four times the size of her head.
Then the orb shrank to barely two centimeters in diameter.
Then the orb was fired.
Enyo expected many things. With an orb that could travel at the speed of light, she expected it to slam into the draconian, send him flying back, and then turn him into dust as his body was purified. What she didn’t expect was for the draconian to swat her attack away. As the orb crashed into a pillar, demolishing it, Enyo struggled to keep her jaw from becoming unhinged.
That… is just so not fair!
So even one of her strongest light spells wouldn’t work against this thing? How could she beat something that her spells couldn’t injure and her blade couldn’t… cut…?
… Wait a second…
As another plan formed in her mind, Enyo unsheathed her daggers and charged at the draconian. What she was about to do was dumb. It was the dumbest thing she’d ever done—dumber even than running away, stealing the gate key while it was in route to Avant Heim, and traveling across Terrasole in search of Jacob.
It was also the only thing she could think of.
The draconian didn’t get the chance to attack first. She struck before it could, thrusting the dagger in her left hand at its chest.
“Purgo.”
Light emitted from the dagger, and the draconian’s scales sizzled. Even if it wasn’t human, it was still an undead, and thus it had the same weakness to light magic that all undead had.
“Procuro.”
Journey of a Betrayed Hero- Volume 2 Page 4