14 Chapter 13: A House Divided

Darkness began to permeate through the very air around Luca as he grasped at the innate power that resided in him, coaxing it to bloom just as his dark wings had done. Luca was hoping for a miracle so he could survive. At the edge of his senses, he felt at the nightmare he sought to summon, but before he could finish, Keira was abruptly stopped.

Dominic had decided to interfere, and with his interference, the spell that Luca was trying to cast, the summoning of the monster failed. I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, but he really could have stepped up a lot sooner, thought Luca as he dropped to the ground, suffering from painful spell feedback.

Staring down Keira, Dominic stomped one of his hooves and pulse of magic spread out from him. The pulse dismissing the residual effects of the immobilization spell. His face showing no emotion but anger; Dominic reached down with a clawed three-fingered hand helping Luca get off the ground.

Luca was struggling, making painful sounding shallow breathes as he fought for air as a result of the feedback. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He shouted in anger as he fought the familiar frustration of helplessness that threatened to overtake his senses.

"Hey, kid, don't lose yourself now," Dominic said, trying to get Luca to steel his nerves. "Let this be a lesson you never forget. Don't ever let any of your enemies see you suffer. Never let them see how they hurt you."

Keira glared at the two of them as her hands began to glow, getting ready to charge up an ability to attack as Layla and Kevin looked on timidly. "Get out of the way, Dominic, we need to know what he knows. Nobody, not even you are going to get in the way of that. Too many people are relying on us."

Dominic gave Luca a reassuring nod. Letting Luca at least known that he was on his side. "Keira, you don't want to do this, you know how I feel about being threatened. You can't take me, even if your sister and cousin support you. You need to back off. That's more than enough, Keira."

Keira responded by launching the ball of lighting energy towards them she had been challenging. Dominic quickly put himself in front of Luca and effortlessly absorbed the magic attack before yelling at her one more time, "This boy didn't kill Dane. You and I both know it. You're acting crazy and making assumptions that could hurt everything we've tried to do here. Snap out of it." His voice laced with as the power of chilled ice emerged from his fingertips. The magic spell encircling Kiera in a layer of frost, freezing her in place. "This ends now."

Luca could see Keira struggling to try and turn her lips upwards in a snarl, but no matter how hard she fought against the magical binding, she couldn't move. Keira was wholly immobilized by the devil-man's spell. Dominic is a lot stronger than I gave him credit for, admitted Luca grudgingly. He was surprised and grateful for the reprieve from the elf's craziness. Luca hadn't expected Dominic to interfere and was further surprised by the hard edge to the devil-man's voice, Luca had assumed the man was cowed and intimated by the twins, but here he was, with a dominating presence that hinted at hidden power as the room shook from the vibrations of energy that emanated from Dominic.

"I had thought we were all in agreement that we would take time to talk to Luca first before making any assumptions and figure out if he's a potential ally or enemy. Yes, he's different than the rest of the newcomers, and we need to know why. If the dungeon is changing, we need to know why, and none of that happens if you can't control yourself and lash out like an animal." Chastised Dominic as he looked directly at Keira, and through her by extension, chastised her sister and cousin. "And we certainly don't kill without good reason."

Disgusted, Dominic released the spell that was holding Keira in place as Kevin and Layla inched away with expressions of fear on their face. I guess they're just as surprised as I am by Dominic's power, reasoned Luca, as he realized both Layla and Kevin were intimated by Dominic, even Keira as brazenly belligerent as she was showed an inkling of fear towards him.

But fear didn't translate into in this case into common sense and a bit of respect as Keira jeered. "Not a killer Dominic? Why? Don't have the stomach for it? You never did like getting your hands dirty. It's not too late for you. We can still walk away from this as friends." Kevin backed away, an expression of fear on his face, but the twins only jeered, their faces a twisted contortion of hate. "Why? Don't have the stomach for it, Dominic? You never did like getting your hands dirty. You can still walk away from this," Keira mocked scornfully.

Leveling a hard look at Keira, the air in the room shifted, shimmering with malevolent energy as Dominic began to change, talking with a voice more monster than man "You seem to have confused patience for weakness, a desire for peace with cowardice. For your sister, your cousin, and those who depend on you, I am sorry."

The horns on Dominic's head began to grow, glowing as they did with magical power that lit up his body in an outline of dark red and cold fire danced along his talons. Dominic's head rapidly morphed, contorting as it expanded outward. His features transforming into something far more bestial.

Dominic's horns grown out of his head, ribbed and similarly textured to that of a ram. He arched his back with a grunt as bones popped, shifted, or disappeared. horns growing and expanding out of his head ribbed like a ram's horns. Dominic arched his back and grunted as bones popped and shifted. His torso stretching as muscles and fur rapidly grew. The clothes and armor Dominic had been wearing disappearing into himself, rather than being ripped apart. His legs twisting in on themselves, the flesh changing as hocks appeared where knees had been.

The entire shift was rapid, taking only a few seconds at most for Dominic to finish. Ok, I'm intimidated by that, he's a scary dude, Luca told himself, making a mental note to avoid fights with Dominic in the future. Standing on two cloven hooves, Dominic towered over all of them. Previously the man had given the impression that he was some sagelike sorcerer, but Luca knew the initial impression to be wrong, this man was entirely a monster.

"You misunderstand Keira, I've never regretted getting my hands dirty. I just don't dirty my hands without good reason. We don't abuse people, we help them as we can, even when the only way we have is ugly or hard. but I'm not going to beat up a kid. That's not what I'm about, and that's not what my guild is about. We don't abuse people. We help them." Growled Dominic as the pressure he was exerting forced Keira to the ground. "Kevin, Layla, you need to get her under control before she does something she can't take back."

Layla and Kevin both ran over and helped Keira off the ground as Keira just glared in open hostility. Keira just glared as she lifted herself off of the ground, "Fine. Maybe your right Dominic, maybe he didn't kill Dane and maybe I am overreacting, but whatever he is, whatever he does from here on out, that's on you."

She turned to walk away, and Dominic was ok with her leaving as Luca noticed he breathed a sigh of relief that they had been able to get through the altercation without any real bloodshed. That is until Keira did an almost instant about-face, her feet humming, vibrating faster than the eye could see as a green glow appeared about them. Faster than Dominic could move, she dived forward in a quickstep move and with a hail of movement drove the knife into Luca's side.

Dominic moved on his haunches, backhanding Keira away as she slammed into the wall of the Officer's Lounge, causing some of the posters to fall on the ground. "Hey, Luca." Shouted Dominic as he followed up, grabbing Keira's collapsed form by the head, and picking her up.

"Don't kill her Dominic, please." Begged Layla as she stared uselessly at the devil-man and her sister. "This isn't like her; something must be wrong. Kevin, help me, tell him this isn't like her." But Kevin only stared, shocked at the turn of events and unsure how to react, frozen in the moment.

As for Luca, if Luca had still been a normal boy or even a normal player in the Genesis Game, the move would have killed him, but instead, all he felt was a faint burning sensation where Keira had tried to drive the knife into him. Tried? No, she definitely got me. Realized Luca as he looked down, seeing drops of blood on his shirt, but if he had been wounded, the signs of damage to his body were already gone.

Luca stood up, knowing that he needed to step in, his institution telling him that something was off about the situation. "Dominic, I'm ok. She barely nicked me, but if what Layla and Kevin are saying is true, can you try using that Scan Spell on her to see if something is going on?"

Keira hissed at the suggestion, but judging from the affirmative nod that Luca received from Dominic, it was the right answer. "It can't hurt to try," admitted Dominic as he lifted her up and looked directly into her eyes as he began to use a boosted form of his scan spell that his bestial form granted him to cast.

"She has the mark of Oeviss on her." Yelled Dominic as he grabbed hold of the elf with both of his arms to keep her still and unable to move as she twisted about and tried to attack. "Layla, it's on her shoulder, I need you to cut it off. Kevin, tear off the shoulder piece so Layla can get it."

Kevin just stared, terrified at the mere mention of Oeviss, but for Luca, the name was a name he recognized, igniting within him a fit of primal anger. "I'll do it. Don't worry about it, Kevin." Said Luca as he stepped forward, anger igniting his arms with strength as grabbed onto the green leather pauldron of Keira's gear and easily ripped it off. Beneath the armor, all of them gasped as they saw the mark, a double circle with an inner circle. It did not glow so much as bend the air around. Though Luca did not recognize the mark, he could still feel the otherworldly sensation of evil radiating off of it.

Layla, seeing the mark ran towards her sister, her own knife in her hand and slide it beneath the flesh with expert precision, cutting into the branding mark and slapped the bleeding piece of skin away. Dominic summoned infernal fire with both of his hands and burned away the brand, destroying in the process whatever dark enchantment was upon it.

Silence fell over the room, as all eyes turned to Keira, hoping the brand's destruction had returned her to her senses. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me." She said as the tension in the room began to lessen, all of them wondering just what exactly had happened.

"Thank you, Dominic, you won't regret this," said Layla as she collected the sobbing form of her sister and gently picked her up, carrying her to her quarters to sleep it off.

"Kevin, go with them, make sure Layla is ok, and be watching that spot, if it resurfaces, send for me immediately." Commanded Dominic tiredly as his form began to gradually revert to normal.

"Where are you going to be if I need to send for you?" Asked Kevin, looking over his shoulder as he followed alongside his cousins .

"Getting a drink obviously, I need to introduce the new guy to the better part of being in a guild, the bar. If you hadn't seized up when I needed you to do something, you'd be having drinks with us too instead of playing baby sitter." Responded Dominic as he motioned for Luca to follow him.

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"Listen kid." Dominic said pulling him close, "Things are a bit different down here, and you and I are about to get absolutely shit housed. I need it, and you probably do too."