He observed the cool hue of the flame as it erupted out. The demon knew that it was anything but cold, however. It would be well advised to avoid being engulfed by it. Lifting himself off the ground, he clasped his hands together and then slowly separated them, producing an elongated, twisted spear of blood. He grasped it in one hand, scouting for a vulnerable location to hit, but no crystals obviously protruded from the surface.
"There were two crystal lines on each head, but they're not obvious now," Arariel spoke up, "I haven't seen anything else, though, so far." Solomon gazed at the heads, following the pattern of blue light reflecting off the beast's obsidian hide. It was distorted around what appeared to be a raised area, but it was as dark in hue as its body. Without any other obvious spots, it was the best he was going to manage for a meaningful hit. He dived in close, dodging a ream of flame that the creature spat towards him as he approached. As he tried to aim a shot, it sprinted away, well aware what the demon was attempting. With a scowl he flapped his wings to follow the heads as they circled around him, occasionally jerking the heads up and down to throw his shot off.
After a few circuits, Solomon got fed up and threw the bolt forwards, taking a deep breath as the Nightmare let out a furious shriek as the bolt sliced through one of its heads. He had little time to rest as the tail of the creature wrapped around his chest, pulling his body into a tight crush as it swiftly surrounded him within its coiled body. The air was being squeezed from his lungs while the searing heat from its scaled body tore at his flesh. His mind screamed with pain, but his body was unable to carry out the same message.
"Solomon!" the angel cried out in his mind, his senses equally wracked with the pain the demon was experiencing. Solomon replied breathlessly, feeling the heated coils press tighter. He pressed his palms against the creature's hide, cringing as the skin singed in the agonising heat. Clearing his mind, he channelled energy to the outer edge of his body, a combination of the necrotic energy let off by his own dying flesh and the mana within his bloodstream. Darkness crept out over the pitch black scales, before impaling deep inside. Once the magic had penetrated thoroughly, it exploded out, forcing the coils surrounding Solomon to retract violently, releasing him.
He took a desperate breath, collapsing on the floor as he gasped in the cool air. His body ached intolerably from the built-up pressure and heat, the smell of burnt skin stung his nostrils. With a cursory gaze up, the demon could see the Nightmare was still alive, although it was highly disorientated and weakened. The blue flames had disappeared also. In his current state, he would not stand a chance, but his mana reserves were still in plentiful supply.
Heaving himself up to his knees, Solomon steadied his breathing and examined his wounds. The presence of blood in his mouth hinted at internal injuries, not that it would surprise him given the attack. Blood magic could repair those injuries, but it would be an exhausting task without the other areas that needing healing. Burns were a difficult thing to mend, and bones were beyond his ability so far if any were broken.
Placing one hand on his chest and the other above his stomach, he dug his fingers into his body. Arariel watched from his subconscious in shocked silence, the ability to push on despite the agony he could feel the being was experiencing amazed the angel.
"My palms are too burnt to direct mana through them, my fingers, however, are not," Solomon gasped, answering a question that had yet to be asked. He took a deep breath, allowing the energy to flow steadily from the tips of his fingers. Some of the pain began to ease, restoring part of his broken concentration, enough to finish off the creature or so he hoped. Once he was satisfied with the state of his body, the demon retracted his fingers, leaving a pattern of holes.
“You sure about this?” Arariel enquired, seeing Solomon resume his panting after healing himself. With a nod, he steadied his body, locking his gaze on the Nightmare. It swayed in the breeze, unwilling to move after sustaining such an injury. He felt around inside the robe, retrieving the angel’s daggers. It took some effort for him to walk forward, but none the less he managed to press on. Even when he was close, the creature made no attempt to attack, not that Solomon was going to complain at the lack of a fight.
A swift movement of his arm sent the daggers veering towards the broken black scales, while Arariel whispered inside his mind. The demon could not make out the words, but feeling mana funnel once again back through his arms informed him of the intent. Bright chains of pure light expanded out from the ends of the dagger hilts, joining the blades together before a single chain constructed itself towards Solomon, wrapping around his right hand when it arrived. As the blades connected, the Nightmare achingly turned its heads towards them, a look of resignation on the two faces.
“Has it lost its will to fight?” Solomon murmured as Arariel continued his spell, evidently not willing to take any chances regarding the beast. Even if it no longer had the will, it didn’t mean that it was safe to leave it alive. Given its grievous wounds, it would soon die either way. Perhaps it merely didn’t wish to suffer until the end.
A mental nudge indicated that the angel had finished his preparations, now he simply had to activate the spell. He placed his other hand on the chain and forced the energy back down the chains, towards the blades. Once it arrived, it spread out equally along the chains and exploded a series of holes in the shell of the creature. The damage proved too much. It went stiff before finally disintegrating into tiny shards, raining down onto the battlefield below. Solomon went to retrieve the blades, cringing at every step he took, but it didn’t stop the demon from grinning.
“That wasn’t too bad, was it?” he boasted, the pride of having defeated such a thing guiding his footsteps. Arariel just shook his head and smiled, as much as one could due to the arrangement.
A loud grunt of pain attracted their attention from the broken mess on the floor, turning towards the direction the sound had been emitted. It revealed that Kaiser was having issues with the giant he had decided to wrestle; it had clamped down on his left shoulder and regardless of the crushing force the demon was exerting on its head with his other hand, the Nightmare had no intentions of letting go. No one was rushing to aid him, the other demons in the area were busy with their own fights and any angel that freed up just tossed a look upward, without making any attempt to help. During the fight with the serpentine creature, Solomon hadn’t realised just how much he had moved towards the front line, too much more and they could have had accidentally dropped it on top of them. That would have caused a fair few casualties, more than just the demon’s skin.
“That’s the best I can do for now, sorry,” Arariel suddenly spoke up, ripping his attention back from the battle unfolding in front of him.
“What do you mean; we’re still not done here!” Solomon replied angrily. To think he would back out now irked him, he expected more from the angel.
“Y-your hands, didn’t you feel anything?” he stuttered on hearing the demon, causing Solomon to gaze down towards his palms. The charred skin had been healed up, although the fresh skin was uneven and a bit raw, it was certainly an improvement to its previous state. Solomon bit his tongue, annoyed at his own baseless outburst. “Don’t worry about it, it’s understandable that you’re a bit on edge,” Arariel spoke softly, seeing his regret.
“I still shouldn’t have snapped at you, though,” the demon sighed, slipping a small smile at the softness of the angel’s voice. “Shall we?”
“What was your plan?”
From the angle they were at they could see that the creature had enough weak spots for them to attack.
“I was thinking of severing the neck clean off. If nothing else, it should give Kaiser some respite.” Having watched the angel’s attack on the serpentine Nightmare, it appeared to suffer as much from taking another massive hit as having half of its body severed. He wondered if simply causing a massive disturbance of the beast’s mana was enough to fatally injure one. It was an easy enough theory to test out either way. Arari
el was happy with the idea, or he made no effort to suggest anything otherwise.
The demon paused for a moment, allowing his vision to discern where the body of the creature stopped and Kaiser's arm started, it was going to be difficult to hit one without clipping the other. Even with the larger demon's thickened skin, he didn't want to risk injuring him with the high-powered attack. Solomon would have to hope that it would be possible for him to move Kaiser's arm slightly out of the way, without causing the Nightmare to bite deeper into his shoulder.
He took a breath, extending out his wings and flapping them a few times. The sharp movement of air stung his skin, but there were few choices on how he could reach the creature without flying, walking would probably no less painful either way. Forcefully, he launched himself into the air and ascended, gliding swiftly towards his target.
"Hey Kaiser, drop your arm a bit," Solomon called out, levelling ready to attack. Watching him fighting something so imposing emphasised the demon's gigantic height. Solomon only stood just over a third of his height in comparison. Kaiser shot a glance out sideways, before changing the angle of his besieged arm. It created a sizeable enough gap by shoving the Nightmare's neck into an arc, to which it hissed in displeasure but made no effort to let go. He seized the opportunity, forming a tangible scythe out of necrotic energy and charging forward.
Promptly, he hooked the blade under the creature's throat. He channelled more energy into the construct until it broke through the husk, rapidly expanding as it went. The creature panicked at the sudden damage, desperately trying to move away, only to find itself unable to shift. Kaiser's grip was too strong, and on seeing Solomon's plan, he had grasped the Nightmare's head to wrench it free from the body. After a final push, it separated cleanly from the body, which went crashing to the ground below. Silence had followed for a moment before the remnants crumpled in the demon’s hands. Solomon breathed a sigh of relief, noticing Kaiser's continued gaze towards him.
"You haven't done anything dubious have you?" Kaiser enquired. His voice was tinged with worry. It was hard to blame him, considering just what his father dabbled in. No one wanted Solomon to turn out like he did, least of all those closest to him.
"Ethically questionable maybe, but trust me when I say Arariel's coming to no harm," Solomon smiled, although he was unsure if the angel was going to be entirely unfazed after that burn that had been endured. "He agreed to do this voluntarily as well," he added as the other demon began to look calmer, the words were reassuring evidently.
"Does Sebastian have any idea about this?" he paused, examining the wounds he had gained from the battle. "Though if I wasn't aware of it, I assume the answer to that question is no."
"You’re correct on that, but I would prefer to keep it quiet until I can found a way to approach him about it.”
He was well aware that he would react badly to the news. While Sebastian had eventually come to trust Solomon, he was far from keen about his abilities, to the extent of being incredibly wary. Even the slightest incident made the King uncomfortable, so on Dumon's advice, he kept quiet about the things he practised, not that he did ever dabble in anything truly dangerous. He hoped that Sebastian was aware and just decided to ignore it now as nothing bad had ever occurred, as opposed to burying the issue in blissful ignorance.
Kaiser paused for a moment and glanced back towards the young demon. His request was fair, hearing news like that from a secondary source would only incriminate Solomon unfairly. The King had been too cautious of a mage's abilities ever since he found out just what Amnur committed in his time as Court Mage. “Alright, I’ll hold you to that,” he responded, running a hand across his head. “Not sure it’d be so advised to let Arariel tell Uriel about it, however.”
Solomon heard Arariel sigh. He hadn’t let on how exactly he was going to deal with Uriel yet, if at all. “Weren’t you with them, though? What happened?”
Observing the tower indicated no obvious signs of a heated battle, but the opaqueness of the crystalline structure stopped him from being able to see inside.
“It was a trap. That mage didn’t want Arariel or me inside there to face him,” Solomon admitted, gesturing down to a distance pile of shards. “He had a massive serpent-like Nightmare lay against the inside of the tower and either it cloaked itself, or he managed to do so. When it revealed itself, the bottom floor was shattered leaving Sebastian and the others above while we fled the tower to get the room needed to fight it in.”
The massive demon scowled. If there was such a creature hidden within the tower, then he dreaded to think just what else might be inside, or just what was occurring.
“We need to help them,” Kaiser growled, Solomon agreed to his words and altered his direction to face back towards the tower. They headed off in silence. The sounds of battle were still present around them, but it was slowly becoming quieter as the remaining Nightmares were being eradicated. Solomon flew behind Kaiser’s strong pace, noticing an issue. He knew his body could easily surpass the speed he was travelling, yet for whatever reason, it wouldn’t respond to the request.
“Hey Arariel, is everything alright? This body is starting to feel notably restricted,” he queried to the angel’s subconscious. Now that the adrenaline from the first battle had waned, the raw pain from the burns had become so much more prominent. He just had to overcome it, however. Solomon had noticed that Arariel had reacted to the pain he experienced, was it simultaneously straining his body? If it were the case, why hadn’t he commented on anything?
“Just continue towards the tower, I’m fine,” Arariel replied, his voice wavered slightly as he spoke. “It’ll be over soon, we can rest then.”
“No, we’ll stop here,” Solomon spoke up after a moment’s pause, stopping dead in the air and then flying down to land. While it was true the battle was nearly over, there was no point in forcing themselves to the brink of death. They were nowhere near full strength for a second battle. “Kaiser, continue on. I need to take my leave here,” he shouted to the marching demon, which slowed for a moment before picking up the pace once more.
“What are you doing? They need our help!”
“We’re more use to them alive than dead.”
He kneeled down on the ground below and focused his mind. With a few hasty movements of his arms, he scratched symbols into the ground and then placed one palm firmly on top. Then with the other arm, Solomon carefully placed it against his chest, gripping the edge of his skin with the tips of his fingers. A few moments passed, Arariel was staying silent as he watched what the demon was doing. It was obvious, it was time for their bodies to be split. However he intended to do that.
Darkness surrounded them as the demon began chanting. Arariel soon found himself feeling an extraordinarily strong sensation of being pulled, almost as if he was being ripped from Solomon’s body. Despite the overwhelming discomfort, it was painless, much to his surprise.
The feeling became more and more intense until everything went blank and silent, seconds passed before he felt the cool sting of the wind on his face and gasped for breath. He opened his eyes and cringed, the light was overly bright to him, painfully so. It appeared to be a side-effect to the transformation, but hopefully a short-lived one. Shifting himself from the hunched over position he had adopted on the ground, he examined his body. His white robes were singed and tattered, but the skin underneath was uninjured and in perfect condition in contrast.
With a sudden surge of panic, he turned around to see Solomon collapsed on the floor. The demon’s skin bore all the burns that had been endured earlier. On ending the spell, he absorbed all the damage to stop Arariel coming out injured.
“Hey, don’t die on me you,” Arariel cried out, crawling over and pressing his fingers against the demon’s neck to feel for a pulse. For a moment he felt nothing, so he dug in harder and eventually found it, but it was weak. He stared at his damaged friend, unsure where even to start attempting to mend the multitude of wounds.
Solomon
groaned and blearily gazed towards him with a strained smile, watching as Arariel breathed a sigh of relief. He softly stroked the lengths of hair that had fallen over the demon’s face away and slipping them over by his horns.
“I’m not going to die, don’t worry. I have tricks up my sleeve to stop that,” he replied weakly, enjoying the coolness of the ground against his skin. “I am a Necromancer, after all, remember.”
“Not sure if I want to know the exact details, but with you, I trust that it’s not morally wrong.”
To what he knew of the art creating a body double needed a live host, otherwise, the spell dissipated. Due to the lack of amiable Necromancers in the past, it was possible that the information that the angel had read was wrong. Not all mages are so willing to give up their secrets to written literature, available to all the prying eyes that may wish to harm them.
“So, what now?”
Solomon wasn’t exactly in a state to go anywhere, but he couldn’t leave him out here by himself, the demon was entirely defenceless.
“Up to you, I just had to end that spell as it was draining your life force,” Solomon replied, throwing a weary glance back towards the spire. “Although it might be worth moving up to just outside there, just in case any of them inside need healing afterwards.”
Arariel let out a sigh, fidgeting his fingers for a moment while he considered a plan.
“This might be uncomfortable,” he spoke as he slipped one arm underneath the demon’s side and the other under his legs, slowly lifting his body towards his chest. Taking a deep breath he stood up, hoisting Solomon up level with him. “Your wings make this awkward, without the weight as well.”
Skies of Fyir Box Set Page 40