Shadowbane

~Somewhere in Termia's capital, Telebron~

~Hyun's POV~

The door burst open, revealing a panicked butler and a woman who was about to explode from sheer excitement.

"Hyun! Did you hear?! The winged bitch is finally gone, so now is the time! Let's go! Go, go, go!!"

God damnit... Sometimes I wish she'd be found dead in a gutter somewhere so I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.

"Calm down, Victoria. There's no telling just how long Lunaria will be gone, and even if she is gone, so what? I'm sure she has other means of monitoring the situation back here. Where are you even getting this idea that we can successfully capture Aresa if Lunaria isn't in town? Did you forget that Belfos is still here?"

Victoria dropped onto the seat in front of my desk and kicked her feet up on top of it. "Who cares about him? I'm starting to wonder if he even exists! I've never met anyone who has seen the oh-so-scary 'Belfos'. Fairy tales... From fairies! Heh, hehehe..."

"......"

... If this worthless rag didn't have such an amazing ability I would have disabled her and sold her to one of our clients ages ago. There's been plenty of offers for her after all. And high ones at that. Apparently, psychos like her are of great interest to certain people. Hell if I know why that is. If she stripped down and begged me to sleep with her right here on this table, I'd only use it as justification to throw her ass out of my home.

Victoria was a small woman, coming in at barely four foot ten. She had long black hair and blue eyes. And she was wearing a long gothic dress. I'll never understand why her eyes shine like that. It has to be related to mana in some way, but how?

"Well? Are we going to rescue my little Aresa now? I have so many plans for her..." Victoria asked.

"Shut up, fool. Just how many times do I have to tell you that you won't be laying a single hand on her? Master has instructed us to capture her and then bring her to him. That's it. If you want to violate her you'll have to ask our Master, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one if I were you."

Victoria kicked the table hard, knocking my pictures and pen holder down. "DO NOT CALL IT 'VIOLATING'!! I-I just... I mean, she's..."

I sighed and looked over at the man in the corner. A tall man in a dark cloak with a black mask covering his entire face. He has no weapon on him, but I have seen him summon a scythe from seemingly nowhere in the past.

"What about you, Niro? Do you think Master will let our highly emotional colleague here play with Aresa before we hand her over?"

"... No."

Oh? I didn't expect him to actually respond... He's been hanging around us for almost ten years now, and this is maybe the fifth time I've heard him talk.

Victoria shrugged, "Who cares about his opinion? Freak just sits in a corner or walks around killing civilians. I don't understand why Master values him so highly. He doesn't do anything!"

... For once she speaks the truth. I know why he's with us, but I still don't fully understand it. The man said he was 'Waiting for a certain someone to show up.' If Master didn't guarantee us that this was true, and that he had his permission, then I would have just assumed he was delusional or had gone mad at some point. After all, he's been waiting here for ten---No, almost twenty years?

He was apparently here for ten years before he was sent to guard us. Master figured since he's here and our goals are kind of aligned, he might as well keep us alive in the meantime. Not that I need the help, but this idiot in front of me clearly needs it. Even now after she put her legs on the table, she didn't attempt to stop her dress from rolling up. She's just letting her thighs and panties be visible to the world. The moron has no sense of self, nor does she understand the danger she puts herself in in any situation.

{Victoria. Send Niro to me. Now.}

"Eh?!" Victoria jumped out of her seat. "T-To you Master? Of course! Just give me a few moments."

{Niro. Your long wait is over... They're here. I have eyes on them right now. My artillery attack missed, so get ready. Go and take care of her once and for all. She cannot interfere. We have enough problems as it is.}

At that, Niro practically jumped off the wall. While I couldn't see his face thanks to his mask, I could tell that he was having trouble believing what he was hearing.

"All set!!" Victoria yelled from the hallway about a minute later.

Niro literally ran out of the room, and soon after that I heard Victoria say 'Calm down asshole. It's not going anywhere...'

So the person he's waiting for is really here...? I have a feeling that this is a sign that it's finally time for Termia to advance to the next stage. Telebron has been on a hair trigger for years now; all it needs is the fuse. It seems rather stupid that I would attribute some unknown person as that 'hair trigger', but... Yeah, it is pretty damned stupid actually. I don't know why I'm even entertaining this idea.

A familiar zapping sound echoed out from the hallway, and Victoria walked back into my study soon after that. "It's done. So what should---Ooh, wait! Isn't this an even better opportunity to capture Aresa?!"

"Why in the hell would Niro battling some unknown entity far outside of Telebron lead to a better opportunity for us to kidnap Termia's Goddess?"

"B-But... Come on, Hyun! I'm so tired of waiting... I saw her in the parade last week and I... Ughhh..."

I don't even like the idea of kidnapping the poor girl, especially since I'm doubtful of Master's claims that he only wants to use her to tap into the wellspring. He says he won't harm her, but again, it's really hard to believe that. So I'm sure as hell not about to let this creep molest her on top of everything else. It would be nice if Aresa understood the stakes and joined forces with our Master instead of being so clearly opposed to him, but I'm not delusional. I know that will never happen, so she leaves us no other choice.

~Reimia's POV~

It was the fairies watching me the first time, and now it's whatever the fuck this is.

I glanced up at the sky, internally cursing whoever was tracking me.

I've felt this gaze before, but I can't for the life of me remember who or where it was. It's not Eremnon, he wouldn't be this subtle about it. Plus, I'd of known long ago if Demons had corrupted the land enough to control it. This is obviously the Xerath's land, so that's just one more reason I know it's not Eremnon. But who else could watch me from the sky?

Arkaios? I only felt his gaze when I was inside his realm or one of his temples. I didn't even feel it when I was carrying around his artifact, so no, it can't be him... God damnit, this is really frustrating. I'm invisible and the fucker is still tracking me!

At that moment a vague memory popped into my mind. One that had little consequence on my life up until now, but it was accompanied by the very same gaze I was feeling now.

... Rai'ga? Lunaria didn't say anything about that creepy God being here though. And yet, this does feel like that one time my unit tried to invade his lands. He knew exactly where we were at all times, including me. Back then his spawn attacked me even while I was invisible, so they must have shared his vision or maybe he marked me? I don't fucking know. All I know is that we never went back and that most units from Xelba who attempted to invade his lands never made it home.

All of a sudden the entire area around me began to light up. It was a large ring around me, circling at least three hundred yards in each direction. The luminosity started at a barely imperceptible level, but thanks to my veil being up I still felt it. And after that, it slowly ramped up to the point where both Petey and I had to remove our veils, because it was hurting us far too much. In response to this, Petey pointed up at the sky.

Yeah, I know it's coming from the sky!

If it is Rai'ga, what the hell is doing? Obviously light hurts me, and I'm not surprised he knows that, but there's nobody around that I can see. So he's just forcing me to stay visible? I suppose if this light follows me it could prove problematic over time...

But contrary to my initial thoughts, the light itself didn't move. It instead kept ramping up to the point where it began to blind me. As soon as I noticed that the light wasn't tracking me, Petey and I began to run at full speed to escape the hellish light. We barely made it ten feet out of the circumference when the whole world turned white. At first, it was just really bright, but then we were both blasted forward as a loud explosion destroyed my eardrums. We both rolled along the ground for a bit before smashing our fists into the earth to stop ourselves from moving any further.

About a minute later the light finally dropped to a level where I could see again. And what I saw, was a giant circular hole in the area we were standing in only a few moments before. He attacked us from the sky...? If it is Rai'ga, and I'm almost certain it is, since when did he have such a powerful aerial barrage ability?! Wouldn't he be unstoppable with this? We need to get out of here Petey, and now!

I got off the ground and ran full speed ahead. Luna, where is Termia?! Err, no, where is the capital?

As usual, a light appeared in the distance. Petey and I turned toward it while becoming invisible. Assuming it's him, even if Rai'ga can see us, that doesn't mean we should run around with our veils down. We've already seen a Crotian patrol and a large legion of Xerath on our run back to Lunaria's hovel.

{U-Um...}

Yeah? What's wrong little fairy?

We've been running for well over an hour but that vision is still on us. I had hoped that getting closer to Termia's capital would make it lose vision of us, but sadly, that had yet to occur.

{Someone is chasing us... They're very fast.}

I looked behind me but I couldn't see anyone.

How far away? And are they going to reach us before we reach Termia's capital? And what's the name of the damned place.

{Telebron. They will reach us in about twenty minutes. Very scary aura...}

... And how long until we reach this 'Telebron'?

{Four days.}

Well, that's that then. We'll have to take care of whatever this is first. I really just want to relax in town and see Aresa, but I suppose this was bound to happen after his aerial attack missed us. And thanks to this, I'm even more convinced it's Rai'ga. He's the only one who has ever made it so his followers could find me like this. Other Eldritch or Demons could, but only when I'm close to them. Meanwhile, Rai'ga is probably fifty miles away right now.

Fifteen minutes later I could finally see our pursuer. He appeared far into the horizon, and he was quickly gaining ground on us.

We could floor it and probably keep pace with him, but if he's running this fast for that long, then there's a good chance we'll be the ones losing that gamble. He either has high mana regen, an ability that is helping him sprint that fast for long durations, or maybe Rai'ga himself has buffed him in some way. Regardless, fighting is our only option. This is so annoying... But hopefully he has some abilities I can steal. Petey, don't absorb his soul. I need this one.

Petey and I slowed to a stop before turning around. We stood there, silently waiting for our pursuer to arrive as I retrieved my veil from Petey. It didn't take long for the pursuer to come to a halt about thirty feet from us. He(or she) was tall and entirely covered in a dark robe. The opening of his hood which should show his face, was instead covered by something black.

"Hello, asshole. Mind telling Rai'ga to piss off? I'd vastly prefer to grab a pizza and watch some TV instead of having to deal with you fuckers."

The man didn't flinch. He silently stared at me for a while before finally responding. "... He says that cannot be allowed. Although, he is impressed that you already identified him as the one tracking you."

"I have never met another God who could track me like this. Even so, it remained a suspicion until you started running straight for us. That's when it turned into conviction."

Instead of replying, the man summoned a large scythe into his hands. Upon seeing this, my lackadaisical feelings toward this whole situation did a completely one-eighty.

"... Well now, that changes things. Seifer and Rai'ga, huh? I'm curious as to how you ended up working for him... I could look through your memories, but I think I'll just torture you instead."

I didn't expect to run into him again so soon... I suppose I have Rai'ga to thank for this.

{R-Reimia... Mother says you should run.}

Nah I'm good. I think I'll stay right here. Also, run to where? The fucker can sprint at extreme speeds endlessly apparently and he has Rai'ga pinpointing my location at all times.

{Where you were before, the cave, it's close! No one will be able to track you once you're close to one of our homes!}

Petey, circle him. I ignored the fairy and focused on the coming battle.

{U-uuuu...}

Petey began walking at an angle around Seifer while holding his greatsword at the ready. For his part, Seifer seemed far more concerned with Petey than he did me. I could see him staring at the sword even now. Alright, we should last for a few minutes. Thank god the Fairy Cave is nearby, because the backlash from this halo is going to be immense...

I activated my halo and began charging it. Seifer briefly glanced at me before leaping at Petey. I dashed toward him and he immediately swung his scythe in my direction. I leaned back under it while grabbing his wrist and kicking at his left ankle. He lifted his foot to the left, evading the attack as he pointed at Petey with his left hand.

Petey was revving up to attack him, but once he saw that he dodged to the right, and it was just in time too. A small spear of ice shot out of Seifer's fingers that shattered upon contacting Petey's pauldrons, but apparently that was all it needed, as the ice spread far and wide, locking down his entire shoulder and elbow.

Even if the soul he was based on didn't know how to remove the ice, I knew basic fire and heating spells, so it wasn't a killing blow by any means. Petey could still wield the greatsword with one hand while he heated his shoulder, but future ice spells were still something we needed to be wary of.

My fingers that were locked onto his wrist suddenly started to freeze. I pulled back and broke the ice encasing them as freezing cold air began to billow out from Seifer. Petey and I leaped back just in time to avoid some type of flash freeze spell that blasted outwards from him. The ground close to him was completely frozen over as a result.

I kicked off and circled around Seifer, or I attempted to, but Seifer began running back as well. He paced himself so he was at a good distance from us as he fired one icicle spear after another in our direction. However, this game didn't last long. He appeared to be losing speed with each passing second, and eventually it had reached a point where we were faster than him. Seifer was obviously confused by what was happening, but at the last second he noticed Petey's tail pointing at him as a light purple aura appeared around its tip.

Once I was finally behind Seifer we both leaped at him, but we were forced to back off again as another frost flash exploded around him, except this time we immediately restarted our attack. Seifer swung his scythe in an arc big enough to hit both of us which did force Petey to leap backward, but yet again, that kind of attack was not going to hit me. I leaned under the scythe and punched right into his liver. His enhancements took the blow, but the impact sent him flying toward Petey who was already swinging down toward Seifer.

Seifer just barely parried the blow, but he didn't retreat fast enough for what came next. Either that or he hadn't expect such an attack. With his sword parried, Petey's head was rather close to Seifer's, so he decided to just bite down on his head and upper torso. Seifer began shaking violently in an attempt to free himself as he took a swing at Petey, but I was already on top of him. I grabbed his wrists and began kneeing him in his back over and over again.

It was hard for him this close-up and being unable to move, but Petey managed to bring his sword back a little and jam it into Seifer's gut. His enhancements held strong, but he was clearly panicking. I felt another ice wave coming so I backed up while Petey held onto him. As a result, Petey and the sword were almost completely frozen, and yet, Seifer still couldn't escape Petey's jaw. However, his arms were free so he tried to attack Petey again with the scythe, but yet again, I caught his wrists just before the attack landed.

"FUCK OFF ALREADY YOU DEAD CUNT!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT TO BEGIN WITH!!"

I ignored him and restarted my attack on his back. One of the blows didn't feel like I was hitting a steel wall, which told me he was hitting his limits, or that he was faking me out. But his reaction to part of my knee being driven into his spine was not one of glee, he instead dropped his scythe and attempted to use it telepathically to end Petey. I could see a bright blue aura wrapped around it as it spun through the air toward Petey.

I let go of Seifer and dove for the scythe, grabbing it out of the air as it cut deep into Petey's torso. We were still connected so I could tell it had somewhat pierced his core, but he was still alive for now.

Clearly at the end of his rope, Seifer began channeling a large ice spell. I could tell he completely tapped himself because some of Petey's teeth were piercing his skin now. Blood dripped out of the dark robe as a dozen icicles formed above Seifer. As soon as they were formed they shot toward me, which I had easily dodged long before they hit me, but I knew this was going to be a much bigger pain to deal with once I saw them turn around in the air and come back my way.

I wasn't used to the unusual scythe weapon, so all of my attacks were complete whiffs, but I eventually began to cut the icicles down. The problem was that Seifer was meditating and Petey couldn't stop him. I could feel a massive swell of energy ramping up behind me, but there was nothing I could do. These icicles were twice the size of the one that hit Petey, and when I took into account just how much it froze of his body, it meant that one of these would freeze half of my body. So getting hit with one of these icicles would be a guaranteed bad end for both of us.

Holy shit, just how much mana does he regain when he meditates?! It has to be an ability or something Rai'ga did to him... The aura coming off of him is way too powerful for someone who was at death's door a second ago.

The ice around Petey began to crack as his heating spell finally started melting it. Seifer saw this and cut his meditation short before willing a green short-sword into his right hand. I cut the last icicle down and charged at him just as he cut off Petey's lower jaw. Now that he was free he threw the sword at me, forcing me to dodge to the left. While I was in the air he bent down to pick up Petey's sword that had fallen to the ground. However, no matter how hard he tried to pick it up, he couldn't get it off the ground. What the? It's not that heavy. Did Petey do something to it?

I hit the ground and dashed toward him. He leaped back, or tried to, but Petey's right hand broke free from the ice and grabbed him mid-air. Seifer cursed loudly as he summoned two green short-swords into his hands. He tried to swing down toward Petey's arm but Petey immediately threw him into the ground. The impact must have hurt him more than I had expected, because I saw some blood sputter out of his mask the second he hit the ground.

Seifer rolled over and jumped away from Petey as he completely broke out of the ice. I ran past Petey while he picked up his sword. Seifer's swords turned blue as he whipped them in an arc toward us. The ground underneath our feet turned to ice almost instantly in a straight line from his position. It took me by surprise sadly, so I stumbled onto the ground, but Petey just smashed his feet hard into the ice as he ran after Seifer.

At this point, Seifer was doing something I had only seen a few other times. He was somehow meditating while casting his homing icicle spell. Risky, as no matter how good you are at swapping stances, it still takes a moment to exit meditation. However, it doesn't mean anything if we can't get close to him. Even if I was slightly better with the scythe now, I was still forced to solely focus on dodging and attacking the icicles.

Petey however, was cutting them down one by one as he approached Seifer. His greatsword was completely frozen over but he was making sure the end of his sword was the part hitting the icicles. They were freezing the entire sword all the way down to nearly his elbows, but since he could still use his elbows, he was able to keep pushing forward.

Seifer was making sure that at least ten icicles were on me at all times, but the number dropped drastically as he attempted to stop Petey from advancing. Thanks to this, I was able to slowly move closer to him as well, and I could even see Petey's tail pointing at Seifer again, slowing him down so we'd be ready to cut him down the moment we were in range. Shit, I'm reaching my limit and I can tell Petey is too.

Not liking the way things were heading, Seifer ramped up the amount of icicles he was creating. Considering he could've done that anytime he wanted, this told us that he was burning through way more mana than he was producing as a last-ditch effort to kill us. To my surprise, and apparently Seifers as well, Petey charged forward, closing the remaining gap between the two of them, letting all of the icicles smash into him as he went. But before they could freeze him, he swung one last time at Seifer.

Seifer responded as fast as he could, but it just wasn't enough. Petey's erratic behavior had ruined him. He came out of his meditation and jumped diagonally backward to avoid Petey's attack, but the tip of the greatsword smashed into his shoulder, sending him straight into the ground. All of the icicles chasing me stopped moving for a moment, picking up where they left off soon after that, but it was all the time I needed to close the remaining distance between us.

Seifer rolled to the left and leaped away from me. He had done it quite fast too considering the situation, but I still opened up a large gash in his back. The scythe ripped through his back, leaving a massive open wound and tearing straight through his spine. I moved forward to finish him as a large ray of light came down from the sky, hitting Seifer directly. I could see his spine fixing itself almost instantly, but it didn't matter. Rai'ga's last attempt to assist the man was futile. As his spine recovered, I immediately cut Seifer's arms and legs off.

Seifer screamed in pain while I flipped the scythe around in my hands. "Quite the weapon this is... I don't know how to use this weird-as-hell slashing weapon, but I think it's growing on me."

I kicked Seifer's torso over just as I felt the vision from the sky disappear. Looks like he gave up on him. I guess this really is it. Unfortunately, I don't have time to torture him, my mana is at its limits, and when I release this halo... I really hope that Fairy Cave is as close as Luna says it is.

I cut the hood and mask off of Seifer's face, revealing the first Human I've ever seen who looked even more pale than I was. He didn't look as enraged as I had expected. If anything, he looked sad.

He looked up at me as his eyes glazed over. "If only you... Didn't exist..." He mumbled.

"... You said something like that back when you killed Shana. Weren't you screaming about how it was my fault?"

Seifer looked away from me, choosing to stare up into the sky instead of answering me. "Finish me... Monster."

"Monster...? I'M the monster?! You mother fucking..." I was about to explode on him but I felt my halo begin to fade as Petey's core also began to dim. We're out of time...

I stared at the man, knowing full well that he'd bleed out soon at this rate, but there was no time to watch him slowly die. Nor did I want to risk Rai'ga coming back and giving him enough strength to heal himself. The scythe however, was not an option. It had felt odd when I hit the icicles with it, as if it was absorbing their mana. So instead of risking it eating his soul, as some artifacts were known to do, I dropped down next to Seifer and pulled my right fist back.

"Goodbye asshole. I wanted to hear from your own mouth why you turned on us, but it looks like I'll have to settle for digging through your memories."

And just like I did to the Crotian who Petey was created from, I brought my fist down and destroyed Seifer's heart. He exhaled his last breath as I ripped his soul out and threw it into my mouth. The melancholy hit me hard as I stood there in silence for a few moments, watching the corpse of the man. I didn't want to leave, but I knew we had no time for this.

... Now then, little fairy who yet again wouldn't help me in combat. Point me toward the cave. I'm about to crash, so we need to move fast.

I could feel Luna tremble as another light appeared in my vision. The halo dissipated and I hit the ground almost instantly. Shit... I think I need help, Petey.

Petey walked up to me and slung me over his shoulder. He stumbled toward the cave as I watched Seifer's body get smaller and smaller. It happened much faster than I expected, but I killed him, Shana... Now I only need to kill one more, and then it'll finally be time to rest for good.