Balance of Death Read online

  “He is a vampire. He could be any age; I would be surprised if he hadn’t studied dark magic. Plus, we know he has had some dealings with the Amnekian colleges.” Daeva responds.

  They get to a left turn in the hallway that leads into a slight decline down the stairs towards the holding area. Azreil originally used as a study for rare creatures. Two opsmen stand on either side of the hallway; with their backs to the wall. Once Ruvaen reaches them he pauses for a moment; “I want you to double the guard; this is an incredibly old vampire who is the leader of the most powerful criminal organization in the realm. A few opsmen throughout isn’t enough. You can use some of my erevno, and security detail if needed.” Ruvaen commands with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

  The men put their fists to their chest and bow slightly; “Yes my Regent.” They simultaneously express as this formality has become second nature to them after an order.

  Ruvaen continues down the hall with the opsmen following behind him. On their way they pass empty cells. Holding areas clearly too large for a human. Before coming upon a slightly smaller cell with bars much closer together. “Daeva.” Ruvaen says as he stands looking at Daeva.

  Daeva is sitting in a chair with his hands bound on a long adamant chain attached to the wall. Daeva sits with his head down leaning forward; Ruvaen’s greeting causes him to lift his head slightly to meet Ruvaen’s gaze, but still leaning forward. Daeva smiles and laughs.

  “I trust they are treating you well.” Ruvaen asks.

  Daeva sits up; “Lovely.” Daeva says with a curious snarl.

  “I hope you realize that I take no pleasure in this type of thing. You left me with no choice; causing havoc killing and destroying towns.” Ruvaen expresses with his hands as he talks.

  “How are things going now?” Daeva taunts knowing Thromb is likely still out there carrying out his end of their bargain.

  “Of course the last straw was your cooperation with the clans.” Ruvaen ignoring Daeva continuing with a more serious and slightly aggravated tone. Ruvaen, with no proof of such things, hopes Daeva will give him more to go off of if he feigns confidence in such accusations.

  Daeva stands and walks towards the cage, and yells; “What cooperation?” As he gets closer the opsmen raise their hands and recite a spell bringing the weakened Daeva to his knees.

  Ruvaen stares at Daeva for a moment before crossing his arms; “I thought we had such a productive agreement.” Ruvaen determined not to give anything away.

  Daeva narrows his eyes; “Give me Kredulus, Lucio, and a million credits and I will see it reformed.” Daeva offers.

  “I would like nothing more, but I have other concerns at the moment. Let us revisit this shortly. In the meantime, is there anything I can offer you?” Ruvaen keeping his options open.

  Daeva recognizes the hollow nature of Ruvaen’s pleasantness. Daeva opens his mouth slightly exposing his sharpened teeth behind his lips; “More sustenance would be appreciated.” Daeva mocks. Knowing they are purposely keeping him under fed; preventing him from regaining his full strength.

  “I’ll see what we can do.” Ruvaen says with a deep breath in. “Take care.” Ruvaen finishes before taking his leave down the hall. The two opsmen drop their hands and a force noticeably releases around Daeva. Once they get up past the entrance to the holding area four more opsmen walk in as Ruvaen exits; large vault doors shut behind them.

  “I think we should just use Lucio to finish the remaining radians and be done with the circle” The opsmen expresses.

  “It does seem like our best option at current.” Ruvaen shares.

  Meanwhile in the holding area one of the guards walks past the cage. “You must have heard legends of demons growing up.” Daeva says attempting to catch the guards attention as he walks away from the cage to sit back in his chair.

  The opsmen stops and turns to look at Daeva but says nothing.

  “Of course I’m sure a well trained and educated man like yourself dismisses such nonsense as a magical misunderstanding.” Daeva turns and sits in the chair his hands still bound behind him. “The stories go; before the gods subjugated the realms there was a more primordial order.” Daeva looks up to his right as he further engages into the story. “Gods of a more entropic design. You see there exists power beyond just chakra and natural energy, a more savage energy borne of the emotional spectrum of consciousness.”

  “Would you shut the fuck up.” The opsmen interrupts expecting Daeva to use any means to escape. He doesn’t want to give him any opportunity. Even with such a pitiful attempt at intimidation.

  Daeva turns his head moving his jaw around curiously. The opsman takes notice, but dismisses it as nothing and continues his patrol past the cage. Daeva pops out one of his teeth as he rolls it around in his mouth he positions it on his molars and bites down. Breaking the tooth and crushing an alchemic marble. Similar in design to the diamond that held the lesser demon at the Amnekian magic college. Daeva promptly spits it through the bars a trail of blood and spit follow it as it lands just outside his cage. With an erie delicate tap the marble bounces to the middle of the hallway before it settles.

  The noise grabs the opsman’s attention. He turns around and notices the small artifact on the ground it begins seeping dark energy. The opsman quickly recites a spell and as he raises his hand natural force from his spell creates a sphere around the artifact compressing everything inward in an attempt to prevent it from expanding. Then he quickly casts another spell and his hand turns to smoke and envelopes the sphere.

  For a moment things seem calm. “Trust me when I tell you to run boy.” Daeva warns his tone more serious than before; there is almost even a hint of fear in his warning. The opsman grows nervous but it would seem he has contained it. All of the sudden an explosion of energy bursts both spells. Sending the opsman and Daeva flying backward.

  The dark energy floats and contorts in the air for a moment like oil in water. Until it streams at the opsman. It seems to seep into his body and smoke begins to bellow from the opsman’s skin. He stumbles to his feet before falling to the wall leaning on it for support he coughs up blood.

  In the cell. “No rest for the wicked.” Daeva says with a smile getting ready.

  The opsman’s skin starts to steam and cracks form all around his body. The opsman rakes his nails across his chest as he does his cloths evaporate into dust. His skin turns dark gray and his features fade into a light mist. His whole body is a cracked and black.

  Two other opsmen run in from behind the possessed opsman. His body contorts as if the bones and skin are reforming. Its’ face forms on the back of its head, and the rest of its’ body forms in reverse; now facing the two opsmen. The two opsmen both shoot a bolt of lightning; a circular mouth forms on the front of the things face and it screams out as the lightning makes contact its voice sends shockwaves of force through the building breaking and collapsing walls. It flails its arms back and forth and they turn into streams of dark energy and cut through the building.

  The demon’s chest begins to contort. A something attempts to break out. Abruptly another torso flies out towards the two opsmen; smoke and flakes of material fall from it as it jets towards them. The torso’s arms sharpened to a point and stab into the opsmen’s chest beaming to the end of the hallway slamming their bodies into the wall. Once they smash into the wall the two arms expand tearing the opsmen apart their corpse painted across the walls.

  A group of opsmen rush in on either side of the torso. The torso at the intersection of the T shaped hallway: the original body down towards the holding cells.

  Meanwhile Daeva goes to the edge of his cell, and licks the bars trying to get as much of the blood as possible. Daeva swallows deep; feeling the energy. He wraps the chain around his arms until he has taken away all the slack and is standing next to where the chain connects to a plate on the wall. He puts his feet on the wall and pulls with all his might. The veins around his arms strain. Chakra burns through his muscles and body as the p
late bends, until it finally snaps, and pulls from the wall.

  Back at the T-shaped hallway opsmen on either side turn to smoke, and charge the demon. The demon holds its arms out in both directions. Their smoke continues forward. Till dark bolts of energy snap through the hallway: originating from the demon’s hands. Upon contact with the bolts, the opsmen’s smoke splatters against the walls turning back into their torn apart corpse.

  The remaining Opsmen fires lightning wildly. As the demon scrambles towards the opsman. Just a torso it impressively leaps; by clawing the walls and pulling its body forward with great force. The demon lands just before the opsman and grips his leg; the demon’s claws stab into the opsman. Dark lines spread across the opsman’s body from where the demon is clawing his leg. The same thing that happened to the first opsman seems to happen again.

  The other form of the demon back by Daeva approaches the bars of Daeva’s cell just as Daeva manages to over power the chains binding him. With little energy left Daeva looks onto the demon with concern.

  The demon reaches out grabbing the bars of Daeva’s cage. The bar begins to melt from the energy. The demon tilts its head slightly before pulling away tearing the bars back. It moves into Daeva’s cell on all fours like a quadruped.

  It continues its’ approach until suddenly it turns its head towards the T shaped hallway. It contorts its body facing the other direction and scurries back into the hallway.

  Daeva without concern for what grabbed the demon’s attention turns to the wall and casts a spell extending his hands a blast of force breaking the concrete only to expose a wall of some metal behind it. “Fuck.” Daeva exclaims.

  He repeats the spell a few times blasting the wall denting it outward before he musters all his remaining usable strength- from the blood he was able to digest. Daeva speeds at the wall quicker than the eye can see and breaks it out. He goes flying out of the building falling down several stories from his cell.

  Moments before back in the T shaped hall the demon finishes fusing to the opsmen and begins walking when the wall on the other end is blown open as a cleric floats in, and touches down in the hallway. The demon’s face forms into a circular mouth, and lets out a piercing shriek tearing the hallway apart. The cleric walks towards the demon, his robes blown back from the immense force, casting a spell; everything around the demon is pulled in towards it until the demon is compressed into a small sphere.

  The cleric weaves a Soten and his chakra forms around the ball and creates a force field containing the volatile ball of energy. The cleric walks past that demon and turns down the hallway to where the first manifestation stands now aware of his presence.

  Just as he is about to take action the sphere behind him sends out a shockwave of energy as his chakra sphere containing the demon is expanded. He turns recognizing it is about to blow giving him just enough time to compose a Soten to stream his powerful chakra out around his body shielding him. The ball blasts out blowing the building apart; the energy ignites the air turning the force into a violent explosion. The entire upper half of Azreil’s ten story mansion is blown apart; sending the cleric, encased in chakra, flying.

  The cleric lands his body bouncing against rooftops before smashing through a wall. His frustration builds, determined to have this ended he casts a powerful spell. Flying up into the air hovering a hundred feet in the air. Once there he weaves a Soten, then extends his arms letting out a battle cry as the earth rabidly builds up around the entire area creating an enormous encasing around the block. The cleric continues his battle cry as two more layers of chakra infused rock engulf the area.

  The two demons taking note of this start scaling buildings to close the distance between them. They run up buildings on all fours as if it were a horizontal plane. Sprinting up with ease; the cleric finishes enclosing the area, then looks down at the demons; having expended a lot of energy to ensure the demons don’t escape. He breathes heavy for a moment. “I’m done playing around with you fucks.” The cleric declares.

  He casts a spell. A force rips one of the demons from the side of a building. Tearing a part of the wall with it. It starts to shriek but before it can, the force compresses it into a small ball again. The cleric quickly weaves another Soten gesturing his arm downward as he does the buildings and earth below separate- tearing what remains of Azreil’s mansion apart. The cleric slams his other hand downward sending the compressed ball down deep into the earth. Then he closes the earth back up; entrapping the energy within.

  The other demon already atop a large building leaps towards the cleric who composes a Soten and holds his two hands outward. With a battle cry his muscles tighten. The demon is only a few feet from him; before his chakra blasts out in a massive beam of energy- lasting only a second. The path the beam took heats the air around it sending a shockwave of fire out from the path. The blast evaporates and scatters most of the demon’s form; the rest of its body is sent in all directions the largest portion landing on the rubble of a nearby building.

  The cleric slowly comes back to the earth exhausted from all the energy both chakra and conscious he has used. After taking a moment he prepares himself to compress this creature’s energy as well. Before he gets the chance the rest of the demon’s corpse gathers around the rubble as it takes a humanoid form again.

  The exhausted cleric shouts a spell hoping to compress the creature. As the cleric’s magical force attempts to push in; the demon catches it, pushing back with its feet and arms stopping the force from compressing any further. The cleric clenches his jaw and adds force as sweat drips from his forehead.

  The demon pushes back with great strength as it shrieks. Sending massive shockwaves of energy out filling the sphere and expanding it until the cleric can no longer hold it. The built up force erupts into a concussion in all directions. Everything in its path is flattened: leaving a large crater.

  The cleric is propelled backwards tumbling until he can catch himself and dig his feet and hands into the earth to stop the momentum. Out of breath he begins to worry looking at the massive sphere of chakra infused rock questioning his decision to erect such a powerful shield; even though he knows he must keep the situation contained. Thatos would not have such things shared with the world.

  Back at the rubble from the mansion. The ground bursts sending massive chunks of debris and earth into the air. The other demon leaps out of the ground.

  Four bolts of lightning crash into the ground around the cleric; four of his fellow clerics stand at their points of contact. Two of them cast a spell containing the demon in the crater the other two using chakra to force the second demon into the crater as well.

  They gather around the crater and lift their hands and compress them both into a small sphere once again. Then they all compose a Soten combining their chakra around the sphere of dark energy containing it.

  The original cleric stands and joins them contributing what is left of his chakra. One of them pulls a relic from his robe that resembles the one from the Amnekian college where Daeva and Asta met. The cleric floats it towards the contained demonic energy and casts a spell the relic separates into four pieces and revolves around the demonic energy. Then the clerics all shout a spell causing the relic to close around the dark energy sending a blast wave in all directions forcing everything, even layers of the ground, against the giant barrier the cleric erected. The intense energy even cracks the chakra infused rock barrier.

  The clerics now floating above the new ground a few feet below them. They all lower themselves. The first cleric drops to his knees from exhaustion. “You should have called for us sooner. Imagine if this would’ve gotten out of hand, and Thatos would’ve had to take action.” One of the other clerics lectures. “Where did this come from?” Another cleric question how such a powerful collection of emotional energy could’ve gotten into the city.

  Chapter 19

  Ruvaen, and a clutch of his trusted men, are at the border of Wrathbrook for an important meeting with the clans. A company fro
m the cavalry and siege corps stand as protection for their meeting totaling over 4,000 soldiers. This on top of the guards and opsmen accompanying the politicians makes an incredibly heavy presence in the boarding kingdom of Valgue.

  Ruvaen worked with Azreil to design a special meeting hall for this momentous event. Built into the side of an enormous wall, that sits on the border of Wrathbrook and the central lands. A giant sphere of glass implanted half way up offering a magnificent view of boths sides of the wall. Inside the sphere is a huge room with a large oval table to be the location of the meeting. On the other end of the room there is a spread of food available to all guests.

  Thromb, and large group of masters and sages totaling around 50 clansmen, approach the large wall from their side. They would be worried by the surprisingly large Amnekian presence, but the clerics ordered this a peaceful encounter. As they approach the 20 foot tall thick steel doors open: sliding into the rest of the wall. This opens a path to the inside of the enormous wall.

  The rest of the clansmen flow towards the meeting room, while Thromb is pulled aside by Victor. Victor directs him into a side room. After shutting the door without turning around; “Where have you been?” Victor interrogates.