Chapter 248: Mental Chat

Chapter 248: Mental Chat

Noah jerked upright, drawing in a strangled gasp as his soul slammed back into place in the cramped closet. He grabbed his gourd, lurching to his feet as he dug through his bag in search of his clothes.

Good thing I brought all those spares Father had made for me along. It would have been awkward if I had to go on a shopping run while naked – or roll up wearing Moxie’s clothes.

A headache thumped in Noah’s temples, but it wasn’t the worst he’d had. Since he’d technically been the one to deal himself the finishing blow, he hadn’t taken too much soul damage – but he was still blocked from his magic for the next twelve hours or so.

The last thing he’d seen in his soul form before getting ripped away was Gentil’s charred corpse falling to the ground and his assistant getting finished off by Lee and Moxie.

Everything should be handled. Can’t say that killing myself isn’t a damn effective tactic, though.

It’s effective. It’s also stupid. Can’t you find literally any other finishing move?

There’s nothing wrong with it. Shouldn’t you be happy that I just killed a bunch of people? That’s what you want, isn’t it?

Azel grunted.

Yes. Among other things. Death is... not comfortable, though. I do not understand why you put yourself – and more importantly, me – through it. Do you realize that I went without such sensations for hundreds of years, only to experience it dozens of times over after getting saddled with you?

I’d argue that I’m the one that got saddled with you, not the other way around.

Noah tugged his shirt on, then realized he’d pulled it on backwards. He pulled his arms back in and rotated the shirt around, fixing it.

Semantics. I am a demon, well on his way toward the peak of my power. And I am stuck in your worthless soul, all because of that damn Rune of yours.

Do you want me to throw you a pity party or something? If you weren’t a raging asshole, maybe I’d try to find a way to actually help you.

And if you weren’t a moron, you wouldn’t reveal such weakness. What if I simply pretended to be kind?

Noah snorted. He walked up to the window and peered out of it, hoping to see Moxie and Lee heading along the streets soon.

I’m more than aware you quite literally can’t control yourself. Demons are a lot of things, but you aren’t subtle. If you were, you wouldn’t have blown your cover back with Evergreen. Revealing yourself was also what let me find that little thread of my soul that you’re bound to. If you didn’t do that, I might not have found you.

Azel harrumphed, and Noah resisted the urge to shake his head. It was easy to get complacent with Azel. Sure, the demon did have a complete one-track mind, but it was also more than capable of pushing and nudging Noah to act in ways he didn’t want to.

He’d experienced it multiple times already, and some of the fury that had burned in Noah’s chest during the fight against Gentil had doubtlessly been from Azel as well. The moment he forgot just how dangerous Azel was would be when he slipped up.

Speaking of slipping up, what is your goal? You haven’t come out of my body since that one time. What do you want? Other than getting away from me.

Quite literally that and nothing more, though I admit that I’ve been enjoying things when you go around slaughtering people. If you do that more often, I could be convinced to stick around longer.

That is absolutely the last thing I want. The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

“Not a bad idea. If we can’t figure out what it is before the end of summer, that’s not a bad idea,” Moxie said.

“We could always test it,” Lee offered.

“That sounds like a good way to get ourselves blown up,” Noah said with a laugh that he immediately regretted as a twinge of pain shot through his head. Moxie sent him a concerned glance, but he waved it away. “Don’t worry about me. It’s just the effects of my little stint. It’ll be gone by tomorrow.”

Moxie nodded. “Lee, do you want to hold onto the dagger or have me do it? I’ve got a bag we can stuff it into. If you’re holding it, make sure you don’t stab anyone. I don’t know what that dagger does and I don’t want to find out the hard way.”

“You can have it,” Lee said, holding the dagger out handle first. Moxie took it carefully and slid it into her travel bag, wrapping it with a spare shirt to make sure the blade didn’t cut anything on accident. “Can I keep the gemstones? They’re pretty.”

“As long as you don’t eat them,” Moxie replied, only half joking. “We’ll sell them at some point soon.”

“Kay!” Lee flopped onto one of the beds at the far side of the room, immediately ruining its fairly clean sheets by smearing blood and sweat across them. Moxie and Noah exchanged a glance, but neither of them said anything.

The damage was already done, so there was no point keeping Lee from getting a little relaxation in. Lee grabbed one end of the blanket and rolled over, wrapping herself up and promptly falling asleep.

“Wow,” Moxie said, looking on in disbelief. “That was really fast.”

“She must be spent. I haven’t seen her fight for that long at once before. She normally ends her fights pretty quickly. I guess running around that fast for an extended time tires you out. Who would have guessed?”

Moxie rolled her eyes. “Very funny. I’m surprised you’re not exhausted yourself.”

“I’m a bit tired, but I think being tired is more of a body thing than a soul thing and... well, the body that was tired is currently charbroiled a few hundred feet beneath the ground. But look!”

Noah pulled his sleeve back, proudly showing off the violin’s Imbuement. “Still there!”

“That’s a relief. I admit that I was a little worried that it might have gotten lost when you died, but I guess you do get to keep your other Body Imbuements, so there wasn’t that much to be concerned about.”

“Yeah,” Noah said, his tone thoughtful. “I had a talk with Azel when I got back that went in an interesting direction. He said that our bodies and our souls are connected, just like they are for monsters. It’s just that we have something in between that makes the connection less apparent, or something like that.”

“Interesting. What brought that up?”

“Talking about Imbuements. It isn’t exactly something that’s immediately relevant, but Azel put a lot of emphasis on it. He’s not really one to be helpful for free, so I think it’s probably pretty important. No clue why, though.”

“Same here. Just something to keep in mind, I guess.” Moxie stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “I’m going to go take a shower and go to bed now, though. Lee had the right idea.”

Noah nodded absently. “Yeah. I’ll hold down the fort.”

Moxie headed to the shower, and Noah sat down on the unoccupied bed in the room. He adjusted one of the pillows and leaned back against the wall, his brow furrowed as he reviewed everything that had happened that day, trying to piece together some semblance of a plan for tomorrow.

Despite his claim of not being tired, it took a grand total of a minute before he drifted off, swallowed by the comforting oblivion of sleep.