Chapter 388: Oh, Wolf; Woe to thy Demons.

Chapter 388: Oh, Wolf; Woe to thy Demons.

Belzac and KleaHatma.

Normally, you wouldnt expect a wolf to have any interactions with a demon stuck in this world for over 2000 years. At least, not to the point both would have a grudge against each other. Well, it wasnt like the demon really cared about the wolf, but, certainly, the wolf held onto his hatred for the demon.

Immortalized on the murals of an old dwarven fortress we found inside the Sirius March of Artorias, the story of Belzac and his growth in power until his death and the formation of a Belzac cult or something lay hidden and forgotten until the Tasianna, Saori and I stumbled onto it. There, not only did we learn the elves, dwarves, and humans had a hand in his demise, but also the fact he battled KleaHatma so many years ago.

Back then, KleaHatma was still sealed in that same fortress by Marsvenfor some god-knows reason, although even Aurena couldnt exactly tell me the reasonand was accidentally released by a human. Belzac, under the command of Marsven, hunted down the demonkin, driving her injured state back into her hiding hole. Once defeated, she was sealed once again.

Naturally, it was obvious my party found the orb she was sealed in and accidentally let her out, but, thankfully, nothing really happened. With Aurena controlling that demon with a noose around her neck, she was deemed suitable to use for Ellaine. Initially, I thought of the demon as a threat, but somehow, Ellaine managed to tame? Befriend? Well, however you wanted to call it, she had become more helpful.

But, while KleaHatma had her own story to write, Belzacs drew to an end after his fight with her. Critically injured, the rank S fenrir was too weak when he was ambushed by his enemies, and eventually slain. However, he defied true death by striking a deal with Edna, the Goddess of Monsters, to help him and grow one of his descendants into becoming her Champion. For that, his soul lingered, remaining behind in this place as an onnikai.

Which, surprisingly, led to the whole Belzac wolf thing and how Saori was now stuck in this place with him. Well, with a daughter who could control souls, I guess Edna had the privilege of fulfilling such a deal. Then again, her husband was also Marsven, and who knew what that Origin God had up his sleeves?

Now, due to Ellaines request, we were meeting Belzac face-to-face, concerning KleaHatma. As Ellaine had explained, the demon was dormant, having not responded once since they first found one of Broggarts hideouts. Considering the gods werent answering me, the demon was our only way to identify hidden demonkins.

On our way to him, through one of the tunnels connecting Belzacs shrine to the Saoris and Asakas living area, our group suddenly stopped when we noticed something bright on the wall. Everybody but Saori and Asaka.

Oi, come on, its nothing bad. Asaka gestured for us to follow us, all while I noticed her mouth was slightly twitching upwards. Almost as if she was suppressing a smile.

Going closer to the bright lights, our eyes opened up a bit as we realized it was actually a drawing. White and black colors were painted on the tunnel wall, depicting something, a maybe, semi-pro drawing of a wolf. It was visually appealing with how the artist mixed the monochrome colors together, but it was a bit amateurish due to the over-the-top exaggeration on it, specifically, the cartoonish eyes and claws.

It was almost looked like

Graffiti, Haruka stated after a couple moments of us observing it, drawing our attention to Asaka when the former walked up to her. How?

Asaka grinned boisterously, before she clapped her hands together, materializing two comma-looking objects with manaone black, the other white. They twirled around, before they finally formed a ying-yang formation. She then snapped her fingers, causing the commas to swirl around and mix into a magic circle, becoming bright beige, just like the wall painting. It was a spell, and once cast, created an orb.

She then pushed her finger through it, before tearing off a piece of it like some kind of semi-solid fluid. She then used that slime to quickly paint a long stick with a handle in the air, which somehow was floating around, just like the weird beige orb. We were then left speechless as the painting became real, turning itself into a sword Asaka could wield.

She started swinging the blade around, causing the air to swoop with every slash. My unique skill, [Twilight Paladin], was kinda difficult to actually figure out, you know? As in, what is a Twilight element? Well, Twilight is the dim, orange light before the sun sets, right? Doesnt make sense as an element, right?

We all nodded. It always seemed weird that Asakas unique skill obtained after becoming a Saint of Ilsaphone allowed her to create those weird ying-yang thingsone holy, one dark element.

Moonlight Guider: A title granted to a mortal recognized by the Goddess of Death and Necromancy, whose control has been usurped by individual [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]. Enables the ability to communicate with all types of faefolk. Enables the ability to control and speak with the undead. The owner of this title will be immune to all mana ailments while the moon is up

Twilight Paladin: A unique skill given to the [Moonlight Guider]. Enables the owner to enchant equipment with either the Holy or Dark element. Enables the user to conjure up Holy and Dark mana into a twinned object of light and darkness, enabling them the usage of the compound element [Twilight]. Dramatically increases Health regeneration when the sun is up, and Mana during the night. Reduces damage received from all undead-related sources by 80%. The skills combined are: [Mana Efficiency Lv. 10] [Mana Control Lv. 10] [Holy Magic Lv. 10] [Dark Magic Lv. 10] [Health Recovery Lv. 10] [Mana Recovery Lv. 10] [Arcane Conduit Lv. 10] [Sorcerers Power Lv. 10]

You would think the Goddess of Death and Necromancy, who was also in control of soul rebirths, would give her Saintess a skill around those domains, but nope. It was something else entirely.

The wolf can mostly translate what Ilsaphone told me. Over 2000 years of being dead and stuck in this place for Edna to strengthen his soul does that to you. Similar to your situation, Hestia. Using me as an example made it simple for everybody else to understand the situation. Light is life, darkness is death. The coalescence of those two concepts is the essence of true necromancy, or, whatever that philosophical ramble is supposed to mean.

She then threw her sword in the air, causing it to dissipate into thin air, before she used the rest of the beige orb to paint something else. This time, though, it was in the shape of a thin gun and a can; the latter was loaded into the former, before she used that gun to spray shining white and black colors on the wall.

Asaka was fully immersed in her work, drawing more and more without saying another word. Seeing her like this, Saori sighed and continued the explanation in her stead.

Essentially, our initial training involved Belzac trying to help us find our drive. I experienced my memories of my human mother, including a chance to find closure to my past lifes death. Tatsuya and Kyouya had some private stuff, while Asaka, well, she wouldnt tell me anything, but I can guess. Saori stared at the girl too focused on her job to respond. The onnikai slime we saw with Kiiro, Tasiannas catalyst, and the slime holding my garm mother together are not unique things. The idea behind the slime gave her the idea for her first custom spell, [Vivid Graffiti].

I knew from everybody that Asaka was very much a delinquent who did graffiti, but I didnt expect that she would use that hobby of hers to do this. I mean, it certainly was creative, something I probably wouldnt have thought about doing, but was this really the best use of her unique skill? Maybe I wasnt seeing the use-case for it.

After some more time had passed, Asaka was finally done, showing off a well-done painting of a husky plushie, once again reminding me of the one Shoyi suddenly transformed into. What surprised me, though, was how Saori once again reacted strongly to it. She wanted to complain at Asaka, but she just shot her graffiti gun at Saori, painting her black dress white.

Still think you dress like an emo, teach, hehe. She grinned.

Meanwhile, Saori just glared at her, before letting out a sigh as the white color just vanished like the sword from before. It is not only a way for her to deal damage, but the graffiti gun, especially, can act as her range healing after she lost [Holy Magic].

Asaka still had [Sacred Magic] to give her access to [Sacred Field] and [Major Heal], but the idea behind the gun she was using was to give fast healing for far less mana than those two spells. Since [Vivid Graffiti] didnt demand mana upon use, it allowed her to spray almost indefinitely outside of the fact she needed mana to maintain it.

Now, you might ask, why not just make an actual gun? Apparently, a gun with some ammo counted as two separate pieces of equipment, while a graffiti gun with some paint in it counted as one item. That was a restriction I hadnt expected, but it did make sense in a way. Still, I guess the power coming from this spell was the fact she could stay relatively flexible in whatever situation she was, as long as she could paint the item in time.

Also, the fact they explained it to us now made what happened later far easier to understand. After all, the moment we entered Belzacs shrine, we noticed the whole place was filled to the brim with graffiti, making it look like some ghetto. The colorful and bright decorations were a stark contrast to the bone wolf statue in the middle, giving off a more macabre feeling.

[ You never listen, girl.] We all could hear Belzacs displeased voice enter our voice, followed by Asaka shrugging her shoulders.

Try some colors and change, old man. Youre all grumpy and moody cuz youve been stuck in this shithole for over 2000 years. Might make your soul happier.

[My mood is ill because my time is waning like any other mortal, while you squander your precious human life with petty interests and tardiness. How would you feel if your descendant and her allies did nothing but trouble you, all while you know true death lingers around the corner?]

Immortality being a curse was again shown clearly with Belzac. As Saori explained, the fenrir had an extremely old soul and it was nearing its end. Similar to the archerudite of Aleistunum, Uzerra, Belzac spent most of his days sleeping to ward off the deterioration of his soul and prolonging his life.

As such, unless he believed a [Belzacs Successor] could succeed with his goal, he would simply remain dormant. Whenever he woke up, he would give this sorta training to them, allowing them to get stronger so they could become Ednas Champion. However, time was waning, to the point every second was precious to him.

[I explained that I leave my shrine empty so as to not overindulge my senses, reserving only the most important memories for my soul. This This is poison,] Belzac snarled at Asaka for all the graffiti, but the blue-haired girl could only scowl and shake her head.

Its that attitude thats killing you, old man Lighten up.

As Uzerra had mentioned, happiness could enhance a souls life. Maybe Asaka wasnt as heartless towards Belzac as I thought. I, too, was worried about Moms advance age and maybe also my dragon fathers.

After that little argument, Asaka just left the room with Haruka following after her. Meanwhile, the rest of us remained silent, observing the creepy statue in the middle of this shrine, all while Ellaine moved forward. She raised her left hand, showing off the two spell ringsone green, one brownto the legendary wolf.

[ Yes, I can sense her mana. Smell it. How did she survive?] Belzac asked, acting far less aggressive than before.

You didnt know? Ellaine tilted her head, looking over at Saori, Tasianna, and me. We, after all, saw the murals of his fight with KleaHatma. Do you remember where you fought Klea? A dwarven fortress occupied by humans?

[It is a scar. You dont forget them.]

Ellaine nodded, continuing the story, She was sealed in a catalyst there. Hestia, Saori, and Tasianna found it there, before we accidentally released her. I have been using her as a source of power ever since the Goddess allowed me to use her.

Not we. It was my fault, I corrected Ellaine, making sure everybody else wasnt at fault for my actions. I didnt know it would have happened, but it still did.

[ That doesnt matter. Saori, you knew about this but didnt tell me?] His attention was now on my vice-captain, slightly growling at her in displeasure.

Because KleaHatma was never brought up in our discussion, isnt a real threat with Goddess Aurena keeping her in check, and, finally, you never talked about your grudge against her. Only against the one other person alive responsible for your death. Will you now tell me how I should kill the demon, despite our control over her?

[You cannot control a demon!] Belzac snapped at her. [No, they are beings controlled by their whims alone. You can only play around them, manipulate them as such. But you will never have full power over them, and if you believe you do, you are a fool. Grrr Of course, it had to be God Marsven ]

Goddess Aurena did tell us he was the one to seal him, correct, Lady Hestia? I nodded to Tasiannas question.

Belzacs growling stopped when he heard this, going silent for a moment before continuing, [The Origin God of Darkness is also the ever mysterious maker of change for the sake of change. I have heard of Chihiro who possesses the domain of change, but that is only in this world. It is God Marsven who is the true god of change, even back when he was still an Edjurl god.]

You didnt know he was behind this up until now? Didnt he send you to attack her? Daichi brought up, also knowing about the story since we informed everybody about it during our story sessions.

[His mood is fickle and he holds no strong love for mortalkind, seeing us as mere beings pleading for his power. Amongst the gods, he is the least intrusive one, leaving us to live however we want, never becoming angered even if we slight him. For he is the God of Progression, Defiance, and Fate in this world,] Belzac gave us a detailed explanation of who Marsven was, but he wasnt done just yet. [Although I say that, he still chose Edna, a mortal elf, as his wife and had three daughters who went and created three new races for Peolynca. While he hasnt reached his hand out personally, his daughters, who inherited many of his traits and power, still are expanding his power.]

Belzac then groaned, sounding irritated. [He gave me a Divine Quest to slay the demonkin, which I accepted, as it would bring me closer to rank SS. I do not know how the demon was sealed, as I was sure I left the demon dead to lick my wounds. I suspect God Marsven kept her alive, but it cannot be through his personal hand. It has to be through other mortal hands.]

Ohoho! Im going smack you, you little brat!

Less talk, more fisticuffs!

A note from AbyssRaven

Ancient Boomer versus Zoomer.

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Sunday, March 26, 2023 1:59:50 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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