Soul of a Human

The visitor almost wanted to dispel his magic, releasing his overeager retainer, but something bothered him. He had the feeling that it wasn't over yet. His second retainer started walking towards the finished fight and got held up himself.

"My lord?" The retainer asked, and the other one shook his head.

"Not yet." He simply stated.

And he would be right. As the lance of energy touched the entity's body, it opened its eyes and began laughing.

"Thank you ~" It cackled. "You idiots!"

The entity took a deep breath, consuming the gathered energy and releasing it in a firey explosion, throwing everyone back. Only Mor could keep his balance and stay on his feet. Everyone else tumbled to the ground and away, sustaining a variable degree of burns.

°Stay fucking dead!° The human growled as the entity rose back from the ground, its energy replenished.

It focused Mor with its fiery gaze, and in an instinctive motion, the boy dodged, evading the erupting flame by the nearest margins. Mor cursed, firing off a barrage of stones, but without the magic-interrupting properties of the crystals, the attacks had no effect.

Just as the entity's smile returned to its face, a blast of water doused its form. But as before, the entity's heat evaporated it into steam. Saphine stood up, putting her hands on her hips.

"Cool down! You idiot!" She shouted, and the entity returned to cackling.

"Little Ranbor is gone. I'm all that's left. Only fire and I will consume everything!" It celebrated.

"And now, little water mage... burn!" It ordered.

Time slowed to a crawl, and Mors' mind began to race. He could see the fire forming, rushing forward, and his body moved on its own.

°Don't...!° The human started, but Mor put himself between the incoming fire and Saphine, crossing his arms in defense.

°Puppet!° The human shouted in alarm, and luckily, Mor understood.

Mor unleashed his power with a monumental effort, the stone puppet forming disturbingly slow in the span between heartbeats. Still, it had been enough. The pupped blocked the devastating attack but got damaged beyond repair in the process.

Saphine looked in sheer panic as the fire rolled towards her, closing her eyes against the heat, but the pain didn't come. She slowly opened her eyes again, seeing Mor standing protective before her, his half-assed stone puppet defending against the worst. Her fast-beating heart and Mor's muscular form stopping her thoughts.

The teachers knew they had been premature at this display of power from the entity. They got up hurt, burnt, and groaning, giving Mor space again and concentrating on protecting the bystanders. The commoner boy was their greatest hope to get out of this. Clare scrambled back to safety, vulnerable with her drained energy, and Orth moved up to protect Saphine.

°Again!° The human ordered, and Mor obliged, rebuilding the puppet.

The stony humanoid charged forward, following the humans' control, rushing in an erratic pattern over the ground until finally launching a punch at the entity.

°I won this gamble!° The human shouted smugly, plastering a confused look on the entity's face.

"You're bluffing," it countered with absolute certainty. Then, the fist of the stone puppet crashed into the entity's face.

With a loud crack, the punch launched the entity into the next wall, drowning the gathering hall in shocked silence. The crumbled wall exploded, throwing debris everywhere.

"HOW!?" The entity roared.

The puppet took on a fighting stance, beckoning the entity with one hand. There, set into the earth and stone, the glittering of familiar crystals could be seen.

°Show me your moves!° The human taunted.

The entity charged forward on a pillar of flame, forming a greatsword of condensed fire. It slashed at the puppet, catching another punch in the face as the puppet evaded and countered.

°The boulder is disappointed.° The human said, never letting their concentration waver for a second.

The entity roared again, attacking in wild grand swings, which the pupped dodged with smooth movements. The entity disregarded its defense in favor of wilder and more furious swings.

"Die!" It shouted.

°The boulder will use the weakness!° The human said, delivering another thundering punch, throwing the entity back into the wall.

Mor groaned. His energy was reaching his limit, but he had to keep going. He couldn't afford to lose. The human, recognizing the magic supply flickering and slowly getting weaker, redoubled their efforts.

They rushed after the entity, hammering the thing flat with earthshattering blows.

The whole hall rumbled and shook with the unleashed power, the human hammering down on the thing like a jackhammer. With another roar of fury, the entity freed itself from the barrage, getting some distance. Then its gaze fell onto the concentrating Mor, an evil smile growing on its face.

"You know. You might be problematic for me. But, you depend too much on the energy of your host." The entity told the human, unleashing another attack against the now defenseless Mor.

Luckily, Saphine reacted fast enough, protecting them both with a water shield. The entity grinned and split its fire. While it obscured the puppet's vision with one hand, it increased its power against Saphine's shield with the other. Only Orth's supporting earthwall saved them from being burned, but it was not enough.

Mor cried out in alarm as the brutal firepower overwhelmed their defenses. Their situation became desperate in an instant. Then again, they were saved, as the puppet threw itself between the young mages and the wall of destructive force. The human had sacrificed their arms to escape the concentrated fire and now used the rest of the puppet's body to protect Mor and his friends.

°Fuck off! I won't let you!° The human shouted in defiance as the puppet was engulfed in heat and fire, melting to slag, and as Mor's energy supply finally gave out, he felt something missing.

°Are you ok?!° He asked, concerned, but the human wouldn't answer.

"I got it!" The entity cackled. "I killed your little pet.~"

Mor looked up in shock, his mind racing. "The human gone? But that's impossible!"

"Oh, it is possible. I just had to burn its soul from the puppet." It laughed, and with this, Mors's mind broke, the shock and horror of the day returning in force and overwhelming his young mind.

His partner was gone, the one who had always been on his side, protecting, guiding, and supporting him. Mor dropped to his knees, gathering a confused look from Orth and Saphine.

"What?" Orth began, just as Mor let out a desperate scream of pure despair.

Mor couldn't believe it, he didn't want to! He would murder this creature, but he was out of energy! All the held-back emotion vented in his despair, and something inside him cracked. A blockade he didn't know he had, just shattered in his madness.

Mor pulled on his surroundings, drinking in the magic around him, not caring where it came from. He pulled on the energy of entity and on the reservoirs of his friends. His whole body began to feel nauseous, but he continued to draw on the power.

"I need more! More! MORE!" His mind reeled.

Orth looked in shock as a burning whirlwind formed around Mor. Lazy discharges of energy playing between his friend's fingers, water dripping down in a drizzle of rain. Orth could feel the ground rumbling and sensed something just outside his field of view, all while Mors' wounds closed rapidly. Orth wanted to run, his every instinct urging him to get away, but something rooted him to the ground, pressing down on him. He tried to scream, but this display of cataclysmic power denied him even this.

While Mor screamed and screamed without needing to breathe, two figures closed in. One with the shout of a wailing banshee, the other in thundering footsteps.

The entity pulled its captured gaze from this dangerous development. It could feel its energy getting drained by this boy. The entity tried to get some distance, to get away. It wouldn't let itself be consumed. Then, a hail of icy thorns pierced it on its whole body.

"Hands of my boy!" the banshee woman screamed, freezing the lower half of the entity to the spot. Meanwhile, the other, a man in black stone armor, fought his way step by step through the unleashing magic of Mor, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Calm down, son," Morokhan said calmly.

Mor's outburst devolved into pained sobs at his father's firm touch. Morokhan dispelled his black armor and gathered his son in a hug. "I'm proud of you," he simply said.

The third figure approached the carnage, looking undisturbed at the unleashed magic of the woman.

"I', impresse,d Morokhan. Your boy is indeed as talented as you claimed," the third figure, crown prince of the soul-kin said, and Mors' father nodded.

"I knew he was," Morokhan stated.

"Still, we need to discuss a few things he did today. Some of those shouldn't be possible," the prince said.

"As you whish my liege." Morokhan answered.

"Also, could you please reign in your wife?" the prince asked, and this time, Morokhan shook his head.

"Impossible, even if I could. I wouldn't want to. I only held back because of your orders. Otherwise, I would have crushed it myself." He stated matter of factly.

The entity struggled against the icy prison, trying to escape it, but it just wouldn't melt. The entity cursed the boy, who stole so much of its energy, and the mage before him, who could conjure ice all on her own.

Sophie Agaton unleashed everything her reservoir would give, creating a localized ice age around the entity. Piercing the entity repeatedly with lances of never-melting ice, she shredded its form and froze its soul. The woman was a force of nature. Finally, she smashed the frozen body of the entity with a giant frozen hammer, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Still, she wouldn't stop there until no discernable piece of the entity was left, its existence wholly eradicated in the unrelenting cold.

As the last pieces were shattered and her emotions were brought into check, she turned around, tackling her sobbing baby boy in a mother's embrace. Morokhan knew when to retreat and released Mor from his arms. Instead, he stood up and brushed himself off.

"Is it destroyed?" The prince asked, and Morokhan nodded.

"Yes, my lord. Sophie used about three-quarters of our energy. Nothing would survive this." He informed the prince.

Sophie held her boy, stroking through his hair, whispering calming words while sometimes throwing a stinkeye towards her husband and the prince. Slowly, Mors' sobbing subsided, replaced by a depressed calm. He looked at his mother, but his brain couldn't comprehend her presence.

Mor opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again, falling deeper into despair.

°Please come back.° He begged, already missing the humans irritating remarks and bad jokes.

But he only got silence in return to his pleas. He didn't want it to be true. How could his pillar to lean on just be gone? Mor just stared blankly as Orth came closer, exhausted but smiling, and didn't recognize Saphine's look of new-found approval. His ears heard that they were talking to him, but still, his mind would not process it.

Mor would take a look at his hands and his body, unable to find even the trace of burns or cuts. Nothing but pristine skin, and it creeped him out. He wanted to be hurt, to feel the pain, to know that he fought with all he had. But it was denied to him, denied by something he didn't understand.

Orth looked at him, his smile slowly turning to a confused frown, and babbled something again. His look of excitement turned sour and concerned. Orth called out to someone, and in a rush of concern, Amber entered Mor's view. She instantly took stock of his well-being, barking questions and getting no satisfactory answers. Then she reached a decision, and Mor was ferried off, trudging along, his parents helping him walk.

He was brought to a secluded room, far away from the mayhem and the attention of the other students. His mother stuck with him, while his father accompanied the prince to make sense of the chaos. Clare, Orth, and Saphine gave additional company.

But nothing they did would rouse Mor from his stupor. As the evening dawned, his friends went to find a place to sleep, only his mother staying by his side. He fell deeper into the dark hole the humans' death had burnt into his soul.

Mor just sat there, not eating for days, nothing able to get him out of his despair. The prince got more agitated because he wanted to know what was up with this boy, but Mor's parents always got in between this.

Until, to Mor's surprise, Saphine visited him in a lonely moment when his mother was not smothering him. She looked annoyed at him and took a deep breath.

"Snap out of it! I won't stand for this. You decided to fight and protect me and everyone else, and I won't allow someone I'm indebted to sit around commiserating his lot." She scolded the reactionless Mor.

She stomped in annoyance, and then inspiration struck, literally in Mors' case, as Saphine slapped him across the cheek.

"Stop whining! You're better than that!" She shouted, and Mor blinked in confusion, feeling the pain radiating from his cheek.

"It would have said the same." He mumbled, offering his first reaction in days.

Saphine sat down before him, forcing Mor to look at her.

"Who would? Orth and I both heard what the Ranbor-thing had said before you lost ?control?. What did it kill?" She asked, and Mor's eyes watered in the prelude of tears.

"My friend." He answered in a whisper.

"Your friend? What friend?" She carefully pressed further.

"The human," Mor said simply, not noticing her confusion and not caring about this secret anymore.

"And this human, was this important to you?" She continued, in a calm voice, trying to lure Mor out of his despair.

"You wouldn't understand. It was my first friend, the one who helped me get stronger and stand up for myself. Without the human's help, I'm nothing", Mor stated, his body racked by sobs.

Saphine pulled Mor close, embracing him in a tight hug.

"Let it out. But remember, you have Orth, Clare, and me. You're not alone anymore. We are not an adequate replacement for your friend, but you are not alone. Grief all you need. We will be there for you." She whispered softly, and Mor broke out in tears, crying, letting his emotions run free.

"Bad timing?" A voice asked from the door.

Saphine looked around in surprise as the prince shuffled into the room.

"I had to wait for a good opportunity and sneak in. His parents are very protective of him." He continued while Saphine turned bright red at the awkwardness of the situation.

But she couldn't escape as the much stronger Mor clung to her, crying.

"This is not how it looks!" She started, and the prince chuckled. "I just wanted to help a friend!" She tried again, but the prince just raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I'll leave you two alone. I think if I just let you go on. I might get the answers I'm seeking." He grinned and silently closed the door again, leaving the exasperating Saphine and the crying Mor behind.

Saphine now really wanted to hide herself in embarrassment, but at least she could help her friend. The misunderstanding could be cleared up some other time.