Chapter 61: From person to person. (2)

Chapter 61: From person to person. (2)

The sensation on his hand felt tight, the warmth competing with the chill of the northern lands. Alice looked at him, just as he looked back at her, but the tears streaming down her face seemed to choke her up so she didn’t say anything. She just held his hand and smiled through the tears.

Gabriel used her hand as support to pull himself up, water dripping off his head as he stood up and directed his gaze towards the claw. He and Alice got to enjoy a small intermission, but that was naturally only because the rest of the party was still fighting the claw.

In fact, after he tore away one of its fingers the claw had only intensified its attacks. Even now it was trying to rush at Gabriel to tear him to pieces to sate its anger. The others were doing their best to keep it back, naturally also trying to figure out ways to take it down.

But it wasn’t perfect, nothing ever was. Gabriel saw them on the side, getting hastily dragged away by the other knights. Three new corpses, two were completely frozen while the third had its midsection completely crushed by one of the talons. That was the price of Gabriel’s conversation, and it wasn’t even a price that fell on him.

Thump

Strangely enough, looking at the the knights dragging away the corpses with all their might, twisted expressions marring their faces, he felt a sting in his chest. It was different from the sensation he recently started to get with Alice, bleaker. He felt like clutching his chest, as if that would squash the sensation.

"Ah..."

As he thought about that movement, he understood. He hadn’t experienced it before, but he had seen others suffer from it. His old Master in particular, the one who first taught him about the tenets, would show that movement fairly often. When they trained, when he brought Gabriel on missions, when they returned successfully, when they didn’t return with as many as they left with. He clutched his chest, a somewhat twisted and bleak expression on his face.

"Ha...Ha... Haha..."

The laugh just slipped out. The sensation in his chest was miserable, a dull and continuous sting that made him want to squash his heart. But still, it slipped out.

"Haha... I can actually feel guilt, Alice. I... I can actually feel bad for others."

He couldn’t help but speak to the nearest person when he understood that sensation. Guilt. Someone like him was actually capable of feeling guilt after becoming human. He, who had killed hundreds. He, who had bombed entire apartment complexes to fulfil his orders. Someone like him could actually feel bad for someone else.

The battle kept raging in the distance, Arioch and Caine serving as the main attackers while Teresa focused on disrupting the claw. The remaining knights coordinated their attacks so that the gap between Arioch and Caine’s attacks didn’t grow too large. They were truly doing an excellent job. But it wouldn’t be enough, Gabriel knew that.

"I’m going to kill it, Alice. But I’ll need help."

Gabriel let out a long breath, as if to empty his chest, as he spoke. Feeling emotions suddenly, becoming human, it was all well and good. But that didn’t mean that he could let it distract him from what needed to be done. No, in fact, it only made him more determined to make sure that it was done properly.

"What’s the plan?"

Alice’s voice came from behind. It was still rather hoarse, but it seemed as if she came to the same conclusion as him and smothered her tears. Her fingers however were still twined around his, the sensation of her tight grip running up his entire arm.N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

"I need a sword, so I’m going to use Akasha. I’ll need Arioch to lure some demons here that I can use. While he’s luring the demons, someone will need to occupy the claw so that I can focus fully on recuperating some of my mana. After that..."

His words trailed off a bit towards the end. What would he do after using Akasha and pulling out his ‘sword’? Well, he didn’t actually know what shape this sword would take so he couldn’t say. But his ‘shield’ took one of the claw’s talons, so surely the ‘sword’ would be able to do even more, right?

"Alright. Let’s go kill it then."

Truthfully, the plan was anything but certain. But Alice’s voice was filled with so much confidence that it didn’t even seem like she considered the possibility that it would fail. They had decided to kill it, so that thing would die here today.

"Iras, Jawul Et Ka." (Lightning, Dwell In Me.)

Gabriel heard Alice chant a spell and the crackling of lightning. When she finally let go of his hand, he felt some wind rush past him and she was gone. A bit of azure lightning streaked through the sky and crashed down upon the claw, Alice stomping it down into the ground.

"Fen, Quetz! Bring it down."

She spat out a cold order, as if the hoarse tenderness and smiles from earlier were all false. That switch... Perhaps that was a habit she had stolen from him. Fenrir and Quetz immediately acted upon her order, a whirlwind forming beneath the claw while Fenrir crushed down upon it with gravity. For a moment, the claw was stuck between the two conflicting forces, Alice retreating as quickly as she had arrived.

"Makar, Alect." (Lava, Rise.)

The edge of the sword cut clean through one of the claw’s talons, the force of the attack continuing on to cut through another one of the talons. The force of the crackling lightning was strong enough that the claw was launched skyward, the cut itself continuing onward as it tore into the nearest mountain and left a visible gash.

It looked like a spell honed to the extreme, but Gabriel could feel it. A slight sensation, a soft nudge at the back of his mind. That wasn’t just a spell, it was mixed with Caine’s Unique Magic, his ‘sword’. He looked pale as a result, his arms trembling as he held the sword. But the power... it was devastating.

Gabriel perked his ears. He could already hear some distant sounds so it seemed as if the knight had actually already encountered some demons. No time to waste, he would have to do his best to quickly gather his mana, closing his eyes as he slowly started to take deep breaths.

"Alice, can you get me some pills from Teresa?"

He spoke between each deep breath. Teresa was the one making their drugs and medicines so she naturally had a few pills that would help you gather mana faster. The materials used to make the pills weren’t exactly good for the body, but they weren’t all that bad either. They were like alcohol, in smaller doses they wouldn’t do anything harmful. Many warriors used them as a last resort when they were alone.

The sounds were coming closer. He also heard the claw moving about violently. He’d love to restore his mana naturally, but now wasn’t the time for that so he’d have to make do with what he had.

"My Lord, I’ve brought them!"

Almanar’s voice came from the distance. Not too far away from the mountain that now had a gash thanks to Caine so it seemed as if the lizard-men that had moved in there were still lingering about, not entirely willing to give up their new home. That would explain why he found demons so quickly. The pills weren’t quite that fast so it seemed like they would have to give him about 30 or so extra seconds after he got the pills.

"Ali..."

He opened his mouth to ask for the pills again, his eyes still closed so that he could focus on the flow of mana. But his words were cut off by something soft and slightly moist blocking his mouth. He touched them earlier so he already knew what Alice’s lips felt like. Lips, she was blocking his mouth with her lips.

Shortly after, he felt energy pour down his throat. Mana. She was pouring her own mana directly into him. It was certainly much faster than the pills, which only made it easier to take in the surrounding mana. But if the two parties weren’t properly in sync then the differing flows of mana could easily clash and erupt within the body.

But Alice and Gabriel had been with each other for several years already, they had trained their mana together from the start. As such, no such clash happened within him. No, Gabriel simply felt a fire spread through him. It didn’t start in his throat, but rather in his chest. It was like a spark flickering alight, igniting a forest that hadn’t seen rain for years. From his chest to his lungs, from his lungs to his throat and stomach, to his legs and arms, to his head to his toes.

He burned. Every inch of him felt as if it was on fire. His eyes shot open, but the world was still dark. Her hand, it was covering his eyes. Thanks to that, he couldn’t see her lick her lips when she finally pulled back.

"The pills would be too slow, this is the fastest method. Now go, show them."

"Iras, Jawul Et Haral." (Lightning, Dwell In Them.)

Her breath was hot as it hit his face, as hot as the fire that threatened to swallow him from within. Lightning flowed into him from that breath, competing with the fire as it coursed through his veins. His muscles, his nerves, he felt them work at many times their normal speed as they were blessed by the lightning.

Alice stepped aside as she removed her hand from his eyes so he could see Almanar and the demons straight ahead, quickly rushing over. He just needed to raise and lower his legs once, unleashing the fire and lightning that seemed to fill his very being.

A whoosh and a rush, that was all he felt as he vanished and appeared again a bit above the group of lizard-men that Almanar was bringing over. Looking at them, his entire body feeling alight, he felt as if he could do anything.

He scanned the group of demons and quickly found his target. The largest lizard-man. A bit over five metres tall, a scorpion-tail that ended in two hooks, and a single curved horn growing on the left side of its head. This was their leader, the strongest among them. That would be the one.

"Nergal. Skull."

A simple order, yet a grim one. Naturally, that cute little spirit of his was all to happy to follow it. The shadow cast by Gabriel’s body stretched out, bubbling tentacles reaching for the lizard-man. It used a frozen sword to cut at them, but the tentacles simply collapsed into flies and reformed in the air around the demon.

When it cut two of them, two more dug into its skull. When it cut those two, three new formed and continued digging into its skull. It quickly became sluggish, blood pouring out of its head. But Nergal kept digging and tearing until the demon fell to its knees, its mouth opening and closing as its brain was laid bare to the cold winds.

And that was when Gabriel descended on it.

"Akasha, Sarash." (Demon, Swallow.)

His hand plunged into the exposed brain and turned it to mush, his mana pouring out as he activated the spell. Akasha, the spell domain governing demons and beasts. And from what he was told, it also contained his sword.

And sure enough, when the spell activated and covered the demon, a burst of vibrant blackish-violet light poured out of it and swallowed Gabriel. Coming from the light, he heard his own voice, or at least the voice used by the ‘him’ he saw within the black box.

"You burn yourself for the world as a shield, Gabriel, so isn’t it just fair if you burn the world for yourself as a sword?"