Bloodflowers Bloom (The Astral Wanderer Book 2), D'Artagnan Rey [essential reading .txt] 📗

“I think it only does that because it can’t swear at us,” the young diviner responded. He checked his tome but grunted in annoyance when he found nothing useful. “It doesn’t even register.”

“I think we’ll simply have to hit it with enough force for it to not have a chance to regenerate,” the swordsman said.

Jazai nodded and wiped his brow. “I hate it when brute force is the correct choice.” He took a deep breath and regulated his anima. “I have a plan.”

“You do?” he asked. Asla yelled at them to move and they realized that the demon had begun to charge another blast of magic. Devol prepared to defend but noticed something odd. A bright spot appeared on its torso and grew larger, and its chest began to protrude. He felt oddly hot and wondered if this was some new magic the beast possessed.

It turned but its chest erupted in flames before it could finish. They spread quickly to cover its whole frame. It attempted to repair itself but the fire simply continued to grow larger and hotter and soon, the creature couldn’t keep up. The three friends watched as the abyssal demon fell and even the fog could not escape the flames.

Devol looked at his comrade, who noticed this and shrugged. “That wasn’t me. I have no idea what—”

“Someone is approaching,” Asla warned as she stepped beside them. Four figures in dark robes like those he’d seen at the station moved steadily toward them. They were ghouls, he realized, surprised to see them there. He grasped his majestic and stepped forward, but Jazai caught his shoulder and held him back.

“Devol…it’s him—the fire magi from Rouxwoods,” he stated with a grimace. “I recognize the mana but something is different. It's erratic and…darker.”

“Darker?” Devol turned as a fifth figure emerged from the field. He recognized the wand immediately—the one Vaust called Kapre—and he recognized something else too that made his eyes widen.

“That’s the mask,” Asla whispered and crouched beside them. “The mask the monster wore.”

“The demon mask.” Jazai nodded. “It’s a malefic. I guess this all went to a real bad place.”

Salvo folded his arms and tilted his head as he regarded the group in silence for a moment. “Well, I finally caught up with you brats,” he mused. The mask was doing something to his voice. Devol had only heard the man talk briefly before and his voice had been arrogant and a little shrill. He could still hear that but it was like another voice overlapped with his, this one monotone and almost grave.

“I had hoped to find that mori here but guess he thought this wasn’t worth his time, huh?” He pointed his wand at the pit. “But I guess he doesn’t have to watch over you. You have that big fella with you—down there I’m guessing? It sure looks like he would be a fun match.”

“If you couldn’t take Vaust you can’t take Wulfsun!” Devol cried heatedly. “They are equals in the order.”

“Is that so?” Salvo chuckled and the unnerving voice echoed it. “Well, I look forward to seeing how long he can last against me. It’ll give me some idea and a time to beat when I find the mori.” He grinned, his wand still pointed at the pit. “But that’s for later. Right now, I want to enjoy our reunion.” A circle of fire erupted, covered the vast edge of the hole, and climbed a few feet.

Devol turned and tried to shout to Wulfsun but a blue light flashed behind him. He turned to see that Jazai had created a shield to block the attacks by the four ghouls that sprang into action as soon as he looked away.

“It won’t hold!” the diviner shouted and Devol and Asla prepared to fight as the shield fell and the beings pushed through.

Salvo watched this for a moment in genuine amusement. They had been able to hold Koli off so they should be able to last against a few ghouls for a couple of minutes, at least. He pointed Kapre above the pit and rolled the wand in his hands. He would need a little time to set this up, but it would be worth the effort. It was dark in this hole, after all.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Two ghouls, one with a pair of daggers and the other with wretched claws, clashed against Devol’s sword. Asla battered one away and Jazai swept in quickly to grab the ghoul with the knives and ported them away.

Devol forced the remaining two back, slid away, and held his sword up. These beings were fast and much stronger than he had imagined. Wulfsun had said they were reanimated corpses, right? He would have thought their muscles would have decayed if that were the case. He studied them as they began to circle him and noticed that they pulsed with mana, but it didn’t appear to be Salvo’s. It couldn’t be theirs as the dead could not form mana, and whoever gave it to them had enough to spare as these entities could use vis with ease.

He held his blade to one side and his gaze darted from one to the other. He glanced at Salvo, who waved his wand casually toward the pit, and he frowned. What was he doing? One of the ghouls moved toward him and he snapped to face it. He could fight multiple opponents at once usually, but given how fast these could move, if he messed up only once, that might give them enough of an opening to disembowel him. Instinctively, he began to back away, only to realize that would either take him closer to the crop fields and whatever might be lurking in there or closer to the fires Salvo had already created.

He looked at his teammates. Jazai managed to fend his opponent off but couldn’t land a clean strike and Asla and her ghoul traded blows. It was fast enough to keep up with her, but she had been