Dreamland

Even with Flo in the lead, I had difficulties gathering my thoughts. Who knows what shit was cursing in my veins? The fact that I couldn't see around and could not asses my situation was only aggravating things.

The black angel (or dark angel as they are sometimes called) was now pushing images in my brain through telepathy. He was probably trying to clarify things or confuse me, as is a common tactic of these beasts? What was the truth?

Black angels, the ultimate evil mob in Mephisto! Each and every one of them has the power of an endboss. Destructive mobs that live in a specific area in Mephisto's world. How on Earth did one manage to appear here? Why?

They are intelligent, curious, and evil; they kill for no reason and make all sorts of dubious deals. They may wipe a whole party and let the weakest member, mostly the healer, alive just for fun. Then they chase the poor sob all the way to the next village or town. In a way, they remind me of cats: they like to play with their victims as cats do. Overpowered kitties that look like dark gray angels with ethereal bodies that can pass through matter and can materialize themselves or part of themselves at will.

They have both physical and magical attacks and are invulnerable against most physical attacks in their ethereal form and have very high resistance against magical attacks in physical form.

They have wings but do not use them to fly as they can teleport in swift succession. Their wings are not wide enough to allow them to fly for real, but they can float, sailing from point to point if they so wish. That, combined with their teleportation capability, makes them very mobile targets. One of their weaknesses is that they cannot stay too long in their ethereal form as they would start to lose consistency, and in addition, the ethereal form is a drain on their energy. They have to become material from time to time.

They have that ingrained tendency to make deals.

I know Flo knows more about them, but it was not the time to ask her.

The problem was that the black angel was probably right, and whoever was holding me imprisoned may have decided that it was too risky an endeavor to keep me alive.

As if to confirm this, I was suddenly bathing in acid, and even my nerves - soaked in whatever they had fed me – sent intensive waves of pain to my strained brain.

Yeah, I got the message; now, please stop!

Probably the tubes I was having in my mouth were pumping the same into my stomach, but I don't know if my pain could be increased.

“It has been nice meeting you, little fairy; it's a pity we can no longer talk; goodbye!”

Waves of healing passed over me, and White Flower unleashed her aura. It was probably not intentional, but it happened as she suddenly changed into panic-healing mode.

The results were surprising; the lights went out as soon as my aura was unleashed.

I heard exclamations and curses and the flow of liquid ceased suddenly.

There was still enough acid with me in that kind of tub I was in, but at least no new acid was flowing in. As healing passed again and again over me, the situation became clearer, possibly the healing neutralized some of the drugs inside me, or maybe the acid did that. I realized I was in some kind of glassy casket with multiple, probably steel shackles immobilizing me.

My violent movements and pushes had not helped free me. I tried again, now more aware of what I was doing to break the bindings and force my way out, but with no immediate results.

“Impressing little fairy, you surprised me, but they are now manually controlling the valves!”

Yeah, probably all chips around were fried when she unleashed her aura.

She did that to make sense of the environment through her mana. Mana sense or aura sense is more like the tactile sense. As if I would be able to touch all that my mana touched with my fingers. It was confusing, as it went through things and was not reflected by them, but Flo could discern many things, and that helped me also understand. There was one sensation inside a plastic piece, inside a metal piece, or out in the air. The floor gave a different sensation, the tiles that formed the floor another one, even the cement between tiles or under tiles. The wires a sensation, the pipes a different one, bodies completely different.

As if you would touch many different things and feel their texture. For me, those sensations were overwhelming, but Flo's brain arranged everything in a kind of three-dimensional view. A gray world where I could see everything.

As the horns were now healed, Flo had a very precise and clear understanding and, in a couple of seconds, was able to localize the kid possessed by the black angel. The black angel had shown us that, but she did not want to rely on him. She concentrated on the two different auras, and several seconds later, the black angel was freed in the middle of the room.

I don't think I will ever be able to forget the image that I saw in my mind at that moment.

In that gray three-dimensional gray world, the materialization out of nowhere of the same time beautiful and horrible creature, the hideous gray angel slowly spreading its wings in the middle of a group of people.

But it was only an instant; in the next second, he was away, and the dying started.

Maybe I could have followed his movement as he teleported from place to place, cleaning the area, but I was too busy healing myself and trying to survive. Somebody had manually opened a valve, and acid was now flowing over me again, the casket getting full.

Help me, and I'll help you! The fucking fuck! I was now breathing acid, healing frenetically, knowing that I would be dead any second I stopped healing.

Gargling furiously, shaking mad, I tried to free myself, healing as fast and often as possible.

Then suddenly, the casket broke, and the liquid washed over me. He was standing there looking at me as if watching a bug curiously.

“Help me, and I'll help you! Did you make a tour of the building? What do you understand by helping me?” - said Flo coughing and spitting acid.

He watched me askew:

“You did not make any deal.”

He blinked, watching me seriously.

“I accept the deal!” - said Flo nodding and spitting further acid

He shrugged:

“Oh. Good. I thought you might have changed your mind. It is still valid even if a little late.”

He stood further there, looking at me.

“What are you doing?” - asked Flo, a bit concerned.

“I was just wondering, you are looking appetizing.”

I stopped moving for a moment, unsure of what I heard.

Say what? All kinds of thoughts passed through my brain. If I had any clothes on me, those had been long melted by the acid.

“Do black angels have sex?” - asked a horrified Flo

He retired his head as if punched in the nose, watched me surprised, then smiled gently, happy to clarify, displaying a double line of very sharp teeth:

“Oh, I was speaking in simple culinary terms!”

From the frying pan into the fire! I cringed, looking at his teeth. What the hell is wrong with this black angel?

“Culinary? Do black angels eat?”

“Of course! You know, undead can eat corpses and then regenerate. The same way black angels can eat magic creatures and regenerate.”

“Magic creatures? Hey! We have a deal!”

I was shaking nervously inside my shackles. Fuck, will I end as supper for this beast? I could not really believe that. No, he was not talking seriously, but do black angels make jokes? Is this a joke? Do they have humor? Yes, they have some sick humor.

But it was not humor.

“True!” - he answered - “Good for you that you accepted it; now, we have a deal. Do you want that I free you?”

He asked that looking slantwise at me. Where is the joke?

“Yes, please?”

“Well, you can heal.” - he concluded with a nod - “Breaking your leg is less power-consuming than breaking these reinforced steel shackles.”

“It is not true!”

Does he make this extra just to torture me? He nodded eagerly:

“But yes, if I consider the energy I gain after consuming the broken leg! This body of yours is full with mana, little fairy! Mana in a form I can absorb.”

He said that, putting his clawed arms gently over my leg as if feeling the magic through them. Maybe he does that?

“Wait! Wait! No. Hah! Fuck!”

His claws started to hack into my tibia.

“You can try to melt those shackles with some fire blasts?”

“Are you nuts? If I just touch him with fire, he will say that the deal is broken! We cannot fight this thing!”

He shook his head aghast:

“Don't heal before I've cut it; you are making it more difficult!”

“Sorry, it was instinctual. I'll...”

She wanted to say, 'I'll give you another one if you want,' but swallowed her words. That would have been a pitfall. He might have taken it as a free for all buffet. Instead, she asked:

“Why do you need to do this? Is it for fun? You will recuperate anyhow while at rest?”

He was now chewing happily at my right foot. My newly healed foot was now outside the shackle. He watched me as if considering whether to tell me or not and shook his gray head:

“You do not know a thing about black angels, do you?”

“I know many things, but I am not sure what you mean?”

He swallowed, then took another bite, ripping skin, and spoke with a mouthful. My stomach was turning upside down seeing this, but Flo kept a straight face looking as peacefully as she could, as he spoke:

“We do not regenerate mana. Not like you do. I can see how your mana has replenished even after all those healing spells. I can see your beautiful mana flows. Yummy. What I tell you now is not a secret, but nevertheless, you are not to mention it to anybody, deal?”

I nodded. He continued after another bite. He was progressing pretty fast and was now sucking the broken tibia. How can I unsee this?

“We receive our energy from the shrine. The shrine is our regeneration. If we go too far away from the shrine, the connection breaks, and we are on our own. If we do not return in time, we might starve. Dying without connection to the shrine means losing your memory. A new black angel may be born, but the old one is no more."

He shrugged and continued:

"You see, I am condemned to die here. I have no way to go back to the shrine, so I will lose all I know. It will not be me anymore. I did not know I would be stranded in this world. So before I die, I want to have my fun, and to have my fun, I need to fill as much mana as I can, so you will please excuse me as I will use as much of you I can. Yes, we have a deal, and I am freeing you in the most efficient and succulent way.”

“Would you be so kind as to take all you need first and let me free?”

“Oh, you want to hurry up? You don't like chatting? Of course!”

He shrugged and started cutting my second foot. A fearful thought went through my mind.

“What will you do at my neck?”

There was a shackle at my neck. That might be the moment when I'll have to fight for my life.

“Would you survive if I'll cut your head off?”

“I don't know. It... I don't know...”

He watched me slantwise:

“Do you want to try and learn?”

“No!”

He took a deep breath, even if the fucking beasts live without breathing.

“Ow. OK, I guess I'll cut then the iron at your neck.” - he said with a disappointed voice.

“Thank you!” - I mumbled.

He raised a finger and then put a claw at my belly with a sadistic smile:

“But not at your waist. Here I'll cut you along this line, just under your heart, ok?”

I took a deep breath as his claw drew a line in blood over my waist.

“OK... But I'll have to put some spells to stop the bleeding and...”

He nodded:

“Sure! Do it! Don't bother. I'll have doubled your feet's flesh with this. You healed them before I cut down your lower half! Pity there were no more shackles.”

He said that with a grin. I breathed out:

“You can keep those as a bonus... You almost ate one through...”

He nodded happily with that satisfied grin on his face.