A Loyal Companion
FOURTEEN: Rescue

With all the braveness I had left in me, I took one step into Absolon. I stood by the entrance, my eyes closed, waiting for despair to try corrupt me and all hope to be stripped bare from my soul, but it never came. I opened my eyes and found a faint white glow on the mandala, radiating to cover all of me. I muttered a silent thank you to the gods and took steps into the never ending blackness.

I did have the intention to walk in through the front door of the stronghold, but I wanted to get to Gin before anything else, so went to the West wing, the sewer entrance, after this I bet the enemies could smell me from miles away. The water was murky and sticky, but I guessed the gods were on my side as I got into the smith factory without any demon on my path, and the water became as clear as crystal near the entrance, I got to clean up after all.

I emerged from what may have looked like a puddle of water just by the entrance. I adjusted myself to the new environment. The place was surrounded by stone walls, metal clacking noises filled the room, and my eyes hurt while trying to adjust to the heat and red-ish ambience color. I examined the room I was in, looked like an isolated room with only a small hole in front of me which led to some kind of factory.

The hole was big enough for me to crawl in, but what I saw at the other end of that hole wasn’t pretty. Demons forging weapons were not really the kind of creatures I would like to fight without backups. The factory was pretty much an open space with little room to hide. I looked around at the side of the walls, it was unlit and could cover me if I crawl along there and hide behind some of the stone tables or barrels. How the hell am I going to get there unnoticed? The exit of the hole pretty much was between two stations with demon working on each one, with a huge hammer and heated metal on each hand.

Before I could think of a new strategy, I caught a glimpse of an animal. A wolf… a big black wolf, pretty much a nastier version of werewolf, and these ones would not change to human form, it would change to something not much different from a huge fur ball with nasty fangs and eyes, they were the lowest minion of the dark army, but powerful and could do much damage, like what the creature did to my arms earlier this morning. I backed out quickly and pressed my back against the stone wall. If there were wolves in there, they would have picked up my scent by then. I squeezed my eyes waiting for a howling sound which never came. I opened my eyes again to peek at the hole. I saw three wolves and was sure there were more, which none of them picked out my scent. I sighed my relief, looked like the protection had given me more than what I had expected.

With back still pressed against the stone wall, I put Crimson Tears down and started stripping out of my clothes. I had never changed form to battle, but my other form was a wolf, a huge one. I could be easily recognized as something else because my fur was silvery grey and white, but if I moved fast enough, the demons hopefully wouldn’t have time the time to register that I wasn’t one of their wolves. As for the two demons closest to the hole, I could still cast an illusion to fool them, made them see me as one of their wolves, but if another demon saw me from far away they would recognize me straight away, since my illusion spell only would affect someone who was within five meter radius from me, as I had mentioned, spell casting wasn’t my strong point, but it was enough for me to survive.

Once I finished undressing, I put my clothes by Crimson Tears, and pressed my palm on the sword. In my other form, Crimson Tears would be useless, but if I changed form once I found a hiding space, I could spell Crimson Tears and my clothes to come to me.

My palm started to tingle, which spread out to my arms, and soon enough my whole body felt the tingle. I felt fur growing out of my human skin, and my bones started to shift. I closed my eyes and let the change took over. When I opened my eyes, I was down to four paws on the ground. My vision had changed, my hearing enhanced, and I could pick out scents more thoroughly. The smell of coal and heated metal was so strong that I could almost taste it. I looked down to my left front leg, I found the mandala was still embedded on my skin, just beneath the fur.

I crouched and crawled into the hole. Once I got to the other end, I peeked at what was happening, the two demons forging weapons were still too close to me. I had to wait. When one of them turned around and the other was putting the heated metal into water, I mentally cast an illusion spell to cover myself and got out of the hole. I eyed at a dark corner I saw earlier and bolted towards it.

A wolf crossed my path. Oh crap! I knew the wolf wouldn’t recognize me, but if I stay at one spot long enough someone else might. The wolf curled his lips baring his fangs and snarled at me. Get back to your post. I snarled back at him, mentally giving him the illusion that I stood at my post. Luckily it worked. My magic had limitations when I was in my other form, I could only do something that could be done to myself, instead of others. Even as human that particular magic was limited, I only could enhance what was already there, but couldn’t turn myself to look like a completely different being. The wolf stared unhappily towards me but then left me alone. I moved fast to the corner behind the stacked barrels. The corner was dark enough that I was sure no one could see me there. I sniffed around to make sure no one was anywhere near me.

When it was safe to change, I sat down and took my human form back. Still crouching, I looked up with my human eyes, after the first second my human eyes started to function again, and I finally could see what was around me. Making sure again that no wolves were anywhere near me, I cast a spell to bring Crimson Tears and my clothes to me. Holding my hand out, Crimson Tears appeared in my hand, and the clothes followed. The sword vibrated in my hand alarmingly. There was something uneasy about it, I knew that it was thirsty, especially with so many demon flesh around us. I couldn’t help but noticing that Crimson Tears had been very thirsty lately. I thought and hoped that maybe it was because all the temptations around it. I squeezed my hand on it and stroked the blade.

All dressed and ready to go, I took another peek around me. My nose picked out the smell of the same wolf that confronted me earlier, I looked to find it back near the entrance hole I came in from. I looked at what lied in front of me, the stacks of barrels were along three quarters of the way through to the factory, I could make a straight run for it, and just had to make sure that no one sees me running from one stack to another. Though when I got to the last stack I had to think quick as it was almost an open area, and the exit was on a plain sight.

It’s now or never! I bolted through the first three quarter of the factory. I looked up and saw a few planks planted on the ceiling and a few bridges to connect the pillars in the factory. Before the end of the stacked barrels was reached, I side stepped to put one foot to the ground, pushed my weight to the wall and pushed one foot on the wall to give me the speed and angle needed. My hands reached up to one of the planks, I grabbed it and swung my body to another direction and landed on one of the bridges.

I crouched on the bridge, looking down at what almost looked like a sea of fire with all the sparks that came out of the metal they were forging. I let go of a deep breath, relieved that no one had caught a glimpse of me. Without wasting anymore time I bolted towards the exit. The bridge where I stood on was a good distance above the exit. I wondered how I could get to the exit without being noticed. I could jump down and ran for the exit, but that would certainly grab attention of the nearby demons. At that time I wished that Anzu would lend me Moora so I could make a smooth exit without having to touch the ground.

Again, I was amused on how I started to have strange powers infested in me. A simple wishing and came the result. Although it wasn’t quite what I wished for, it wasn’t Moora that came into being before me, but it was Anzu’s demon. The demon crouched as it appeared in front of me. He was in a strangely-blue-colored-armor. I had to admit, he possessed quite a beauty underneath the fangs and yellow glowing eyes. His jet black hair was tied with a black ribbon, the face was well sculpted to a face of a young man, but I doubt he was young. It was strange beauty to say the least.

“You asked for assistance?” the demon stood to meet my gaze. Well, not really, once he stood up I had to tilt my head to meet his. I only stood to his shoulder height. It was quite intimidating, really. I stood speechless, I really had to be careful of what I wished for in the future, never know when those wishes would actually come into being.

“Moora cannot leave Anzu’s side. I would be as much help as you could get”

“How did you…” I paused as I realized that he was indeed a demon himself, which would have the privilege to travel into a plain such as Absolon as long as the portal is open, as demon’s ancient origin was from Absolon to start with. This particular demon, however, was bound to Anzu.

“Anzu knows?”

“No, but only if I don’t leave her too long” I nodded. I should really hurry, how he heard my wish, I’d ask later. I explained to him about the situation and what I wanted him to do, get me out of this factory unseen. With one sure movement he took my arm and rounded his on my waist, he walked me to above the entrance. He walks on air? Somehow I was starting to like my new gift, but I knew better than to overuse it.

We got out of the factory without raising any alarms. The demon let go of his hold when I planted my feet on the ground. “I will be going now”

“Wait” I grabbed his arm and cringed when I touched icy air instead of his arm. I swore those arms lifted me and carried me, but I was trying to touch it and it was nothing but air, bitterly cold air.

“Thank you”

He nodded “I came on my own will when I heard your wish, as Anzu would if she heard. I will make sure she stays off this place, I don’t want her come rampaging into the dark castle, she wouldn’t be able to handle Absolon”

“But you would”

“I wouldn’t if she doesn’t survive it” and he disappeared. There were things I questioned about the woman who had a demon in her. I guessed I would probably ask her one day about her demon.

I ran my gaze through my surrounding. I was in some kind of a cramped spiral hallway, as I saw the halls curved on both my left and right side. Not knowing where to go, I chose to go left as I heard something approaching from the right. I ran through the length of the hall, which seemed to be endless, but soon enough I found myself in a chamber, with a set of stairs going up. I summoned my memory of Gin’s location and found that it was two levels up in the East wing.

Lucky enough for me that the next level I was in was full of empty chambers. Don’t ask what they were for, but it looked to me that they were torture chambers, definitely not the place I wanted to be caught in. As my eyes examined the chambers, my mind traveled back to Aranthias. The very room I was in was where Aranthias had endured the endless tortures. The whole room was full with his memories, his suffering, and his despair. I didn’t want to stay there any longer.

When I hurried to the stairs leading to the next level, I passed an entrance to the catacombs, the very same one that housed Dark Prince Anglo remains. My heart almost stopped when I went pass it as if someone stabbed me in the back. The entrance was open, I guessed it was from the time Antheon revoked Anglo’s power, but I didn’t want to linger around there long enough to find out what other creatures the catacombs held. I knew better than to take the catacombs entrance. The catacombs would be a way out if there were no more routes open, but I hoped we’d never get to use it. Putting aside the uneasy feelings, I hurried to the next level.

I found myself at an empty space, a huge empty space, the only thing that made it look somehow not empty were the giant pillars separating the ceiling from the floor. I eyed as far as I could but the room seemed to be endless. This is eerie. Funny that it came from me, I was afterall, something that human would find scary, and yet I stood there in awe, feeling overwhelmed by the fact of how much things I hadn’t felt throughout my life, and one of them was afraid of the unknown coming to get me. I raised an eyebrow to my own thought, so this is how Normals feel. I finally could capture the meaning of the human’s fear of the unknown. So far in my life I had always been the one the others were scared of, I feared of loosing someone dear, I feared of loosing control, but never had I felt this way. I took quiet steps across the room, every second my mind was telling me that something was going to get me from behind, but it never came. The room was dead… completely dead. I forced feet to keep taking steps towards the stairs leading to the next level.

When I reached the stairs I felt a sudden relief. I was glad I went past that awful place. I rushed quietly to the next level, where I found myself in the prison or maybe not… it didn’t look like jails at all, they looked more like cages? Not that there were anyone there, but I could mentally see the captured creatures being held in these cages. I could see Aranthias being held in there. I couldn’t help but let a drop of tear ran down my cheek. Wiping the tear that fell, I bit back the urge to cry. I heavily dragged myself across the room to the door in front of me. I needed to get to Gin.

I finally reached the destination. Another hall full of torture chambers. I cringed at the thought of finding Gin in one of those rooms. I felt my heart jumping as I took a peek at all the rooms. Everytime I looked I silently prayed not to find Gin there, but when I reached the fifth room to my right my prayer had failed while my vision came true.

Gin was in that room, both hands were chain up to the ceiling and ankles were chained down to the ground. His head hung limp, his beautiful silky hair stained by his blood, the man’s body was full with wounds that did not heal, his smooth milky skin had turned blue, as if he was surrounded by a thin layer of ice. They had stripped him from his clothes, torture the daylight out of him and left him be, sending him to the worst ‘death’ of all immortal could get. A ‘death’ by the lost of will to live. When an immortal chose to fade, death came naturally like a human would age, only it would come at a faster speed, but when the will to live was taken by force, ‘death’ would come slowly and painfully. Every hope, dreams and strength would be stripped from the person, until the person felt the only way to get away was death, but only to find that he couldn’t fade, the mind would be trapped in the middle of two worlds, the living and the dead. Over the years, the person would gain senses and would be able to see again, to feel again, but wouldn’t be able to move, he would be left as a living statue. I wouldn’t call it death, but the theory had proved that it would be the same or even worse than death. I knew better that Gin wouldn’t choose to fade and became a living statue, but fighting to hold on to that last will until someone could break the curse was a painful fight, when the body no longer able fight and the senses to longer able support him, the only thing that left was his mind, which he would have to maintain in order to keep his sanity. Gin was a man who was true to his words, I trusted that he’d keep his promise to Teal, and that alone could buy us time to get him out of Absolon before his mind no longer could support the burden his physical body was carrying.

With Crimson Tears, I broke the lock on the cell, and burst into it. I stood before my friend who was no longer moving. I wanted to touch him but afraid if I did I wouldn’t hear his heart beat. The chains had blistered his wrists and ankles. The naked body stretched to its full length and the head bowed down, eyes closed. I could no longer bear the site of it, I brought Crimson Tears to break the chains bounding him, and the body fell limp into my arms, his blood stained my hands and clothes. The body was stiff, and every visible veins beneath the skin had turned black. I laid him down on the ground, onto my laps, stroking his hair, painfully calling his name to bring him back to me, but no amount of begging, shaking, and calling brought him back.

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