Chapter 173: The Demons Specter (1/2)
”I. Did. Not. Sign. Up. For this!” Fray shouted as he desperately pushed against the quaking door that separated him from that dreadful book. The very second Rakna had touched the cross, the book recording Arimane Blade's life began to go berserk.
”I have to agree on that one,” Higure groaned as she also blocked the door. Rexam and Fenriu were also helping them the best they could. ”You'd think that being a dead soul isn't dangerous then this happens…”
”▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▅▅▅▅▅▅▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂!!”
An indescribable roar spread throughout the entire library and caused several cracks to appear on the walls and floor. The books fell off the shelves and outside, the petals were all unanimously becoming red and silver.
”God, what kind of monster is inside there?” Fray groaned as his ears bled from the noise.
”Didn't you say this wouldn't be dangerous?” Higure growled out sassily and the storyteller huffed.
”I was not mistaken! This thing just went berserk because of an excess of power! It is not acting nefariously; it is a natural reaction! It is from that cross! The power of existence contained inside it fused with the book,” he yelled. ”How was I supposed to know that Arimane Blade was-!”
”▅▅▅▅▅▅▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂!!”
Higure grunted in pain as the door splintered and sent a shard into her sides. ”Forget it! How do we stop this?!”
The nine-tailed wolf supported her query with a loud bark.
”Rakna has to wake up! His mind was shut down by his soul as a failsafe! Paradoxically, this caused the defense system of his soul to allow this… THING to manifest here through the book. And now it is overpowering the soul realm.”
”And?!”
”So! We need to suppress it somehow and wake up Rakna whose soul will then take care of it on its own! Like an immune system!” Fray explained infuriatingly.
”Easier said than done,” the lioness grumbled. ”Your library is sturdy and that's the only reason it hasn't escaped yet. It's a creature with enough power to rival a Celestial! Even with just a fragment of divinity.”
”Well, that is the only way! I am occupied maintaining the library. It is a problem for you three!”
Higure clicked her tongue and huffed as the banging door nearly knocked her away. She glanced at Fenriu. ”Hey, edgy brat, your Nirvana Skill should have carried over within your soul.”
The wolf glared at her for her appellation but nonetheless nodded. ”…weak,” he spoke for the first time with a growl-like voice that seemed a bit juvenile.
Higure didn't have the time to be surprised about it and she grunted. ”I don't care if it's weak,” she retorted. ”It's still a Tailed Pearl. It's an overkill spell with a massively damaging nature to all sorts of energies without exception. If that's not enough to weaken this thing, nothing is.”
Fenriu scoffed and stared at her with a telling gaze. ”Plan.”
”I'll try to hold it off until you're ready and with enough luck, the shock of the blow will shake up the soul realm and also wake up Rakna,” she said and distanced herself from the door.
”Talk about a plan…” Fray muttered as the burden on his back increased and another roar echoed.
”What? It's just luck,” Higure smirked. ”I'm sure my devourer will carry us through this with his.”
”Hah! Of course.”
”Open the door when I tell you.”
The fable writer raised an eyebrow. ”What are you going to do?”
”Try my best,” the lioness replied and lifted her paw. She looked at it for a while and nodded. ”His soul should have grown enough for me to do this…” She mumbled and closed her eyes. Her soul power immediately started leaking from her body and enveloped her figure.
Fray scrunched his eyebrows to observe the thick fog of black-purple soul power. He could still see the rough silhouette of the lioness and that was the very cause of his subsequent shock. The shape slowly began to change into something vastly different.
'She's also starting to generate mana…' Fray remarked internally.
”Now!” A voice more melodious than usual abruptly sounded from Higure and Fray was jolted out of his thoughts. He moved away with Rexam and Fenriu whilst opening the doors and with her body still shrouded in soul power, the lioness rushed inside by tackling the creature that was right in front of her.
The odd beast was furred and had a dragon-like head and two pairs of feathered wings. There was also a spiral of black lightning around it and its eyes had double irises intertwined.
'Aeter,' Higure thought as the doors closed behind her. She shoved the creature away with a burst of soul power and jumped back. The demonic beast crashed on the wall and snarled. As for herself, she landed… on two feet and smirked as the drape of soul power dispersed to reveal her eyes.
”It's been a while since I've been in this form,” she said as her golden irises glowed more than ever before. ”We have a few minutes. Let's dance.”
⠀
* * *
⠀
Rakna was swimming through a space without colors or sound. His mind was half-awake and he knew that something was wrong. But no matter how hard he tried; he was helplessly stuck in it.
While lost in that dilemma, he happened to stumble upon a light. He immediately zeroed on it and did all he could to get close to it. He forced his way across and the next thing he knew, his view had made a full 360° spin and he had landed in a foreign landscape with his mind clear again.
He blinked in surprise at the barren terrain in front of him. The ground was full of fuming craters, ashes, and shells... Corpses littered the area and the sky was entirely gray, only letting a few rays of sunlight pass through, appearing heaven-given.