Fluffy, you beautiful ba***rd! You came!
"Brother, quick, we need to get out of here while we can!" Ran spoke hastily.
"Eh? How are we going to do that? Even if we escape from these cells, we can't defeat those punks. My soul power is restricted and my physical strength won't be able to hold all of their attacks."
"Gah, I have no time to explain, just… do you trust me?"
"Of course!" Sort of.
"Then help me out of here!"
Pridicus gulped once again, he didn't know what to do other than trust him. After all, he really doesn't want to die and he still had things to do. And it's not like he doesn't trust Ran, he just doesn't know if it's enough.
So, he clenched his fist before gripping the cell bars. Then, with his muscles bulging and his veins popping, he bent the bars to create an opening for him; he did the same to Rans cell.
"Quick, take this stupid cage off me!"
Pridicus then carefully pulled the cage apart, piece by piece, trying to hurt Rans neck or head any more than it was.
"Phew." He massaged his neck as he finally felt he could breathe properly. Even though the cage had gaping holes all over it, it still felt quite suffocating in there. But now was not the time to worry about a cage.
He looked carefully at Pridicus' chest, the spell was right in front of his eyes.
The image of the runes clear in his mind, he was determined to rid this man of his curse!
Of course, it wasn't going to be that simple. The spell had already seeped into his body and even if he skinned him, he wouldn't be able to get rid of the spell.
So, that only leaves with one option. Modification. He had to change the spell into something else using it as the foundation.
Basically, he had to do some tweaking.
Pridicus: "..."
Excuse me! Why are you looking at me like that with that grin on your face!? And why are you rubbing your hands together maniacally!? Oh god what have I done!
Ran, wanting to waste no time, immediately called upon the ultimate power of juice!
Soul juice!
Instantaneously, a tiny ball of juice appeared on his hand. But this was no ordinary ball.
It was pink! And it was also blue! With swirls!
Actually, it was pretty ordinary since its power was rank-8 and it also had no affinities or attributes. But that didn't stop Brother Pride over here from being completely enamored by what he saw.
Fascinating! Was what he thought. When would he be able to see something like this in his life? He didn't know, but from his experience, he probably never would.
It had to be said that if someone has two colors, it usually meant that they had two affinities, like fire and water and so on.
And it was even rarer in humans since most humans don't have any affinities to start off with; only when their sigil incorporates two elements can they have two colors.
Did this mean Ran had two elements? Pridicus didn't know, but we know. Of course not! How could his sigil, parry, have two elements when it doesn't even have one?
Either way, he was curious to see what this ball could do considering how confident Ran was in being able to escape scott free.
Soon, the ball grew into the size of about a basketball. Of course, this was only the first step.
Next, of course, the spinning! Spin ball, spin! And so it did.
It spun and spun, faster and faster until small strings started flailing all over the place.
With its spinning, the smell of sakura that started seeping into the very room itself began to intensify. This only served to capture more of Pridicus' attention as he had never seen such a process before.
After its spinning reached a certain speed, a slight wrinkle happened after some juice folded onto itself. The wrinkle stretched with the spinning before it broke off and started spinning on the ball too.
The ball stretched and contorted itself as it began heating up from… FRICTION. Once it became hot enough, it suddenly burst aflame!
While it was floating on Rans hand, its previous beautiful color scheme was now replaced by a coal black.
"Awesome, I didn't even know you could do this outside the soul." Ran looked on excitedly as he controlled the black juice to form that of runes.
"Outside the… soul?" Pridicus has a fire affinity, so he doesn't have a sigil and has no knowledge of runes.
But when he saw the runes taking form, he was reminded of that monster who carved the spell into his body with a sharp pen.
"Ran, you…" sweat started forming on his head as he slowly backed away, he didn't even think about attacking; this was just a flighty response from his shaking body.
"Don't worry brother, the pain won't last too long." A smirk was raised.
Once the runes took the shape they needed, it looked awfully like the spell on Pridicus' chest, though it still looked somewhat different.
"What!?" Brother Pride yowled loudly as he looked at the runes in fear. But before he could think of doing anything, the runes seeped into his body.
Once both spells touched each other, a battle started as the self-destruction spell wanted to blow up. But how would the spell allow it to!?
Immediately, Rans spell began overwhelming the spell on the chest as they started integrating with each other.
More accurately, it was more like Rans spell was consuming the bad parts of the spell and leaving the rest before fully rebuilding itself as it seeped into Pridicus' body.
Meanwhile, Brother Pride was screaming blood murder this whole time.
"It burns! Oh god it burns!" He scratched his chest in an effort to get the runes out his body, to no avail. Unfortunately, by now it had already fused with his body and was cooling down and releasing the heat into his body.
Ran watched coldly as he was inwardly excited, he finally got his powers back!
After a couple minutes of suffering, Pridicus finally calmed down. Seeing him bleeding all over from mutilating his own body, Ran did him a service and healed him; the wall next to him crumbled from the transfer of damage.
"YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Pridicus was a little pissed off if you haven't noticed, so much in fact, he didn't even notice the surging power of juice seeping out of his body.
He got his powers back! He ended up noticing this after he spoke, so he was a little embarrassed he lashed out at what was basically his savior.
"W-what have you done," he spoke softly this time while bumping the tips of his fingers together.
"Congratulations brother, you are now even more powerful!" He was sincere, but he was currently panting and cold sweat had already pooled under him; his legs were shaking and his loincloth almost came off.
That little release of power almost killed him and if Pridicus didn't take back at that moment, a second later and he might've died!
"Eh? What do you mean?" He poked his chest humbly, trying to figure out the secrets behind this rune thingy.
"Self-combustion," Ran spoke clearly.
"What?"
"Self-combustion. That's the name of your new special move. I "reorganized" the spell to your favor, it will no longer blow you up and you even get some sweet boosts from it. For example, your strength and speed will easily double and you'll be encased in fire, if someone tries to get close, that should help put them off."
Ran spoke indifferently, but the smile on his face showed his excitement. He can finally leave here alive, and with a new ally to boot. A powerful one at that.
Pridicus, on the other hand, was speechless. So, not only was he saved, he had even gained a power-up? He was going to show his gratitude via prostrating but he was stopped by Ran.
"Quick! We don't have time, we got to go! My friend needs our help!"
They were about to leave the cell when a lackey suddenly ran past them in an effort to support the others who were trying to hold back the invaders.
But when he saw the cells broken and the two prisoners together, he immediately stopped.
The lackey: "..."
Pridicus: "..."
Ran: "..."
Ran looked at Pridicus in the eye and pointed sharply at the lackey.
"Ah right, that's my cue." Brother Pride scratched his head before pointing at the guard.
Immediately, a small fire bolt shot from his finger and splashed onto the lackey's face…
He was turned to ashes.
Ran again: "..."
DAMN!!!
…
A couple minutes later, two figures were running through the corridor as they turned every lackey in their way.
"This way," Ran spoke. They suddenly turned a corner, accordingly to Rans feeling which was getting stronger.
When they turned, a sight was present for them to see.
In the corridor, bodies were strewn across the sandy ground and most had their heads cut off.
Ran smiled. "Yep, it's definitely this way."
"Say, who's this friend of yours and why would they be in here. Have they come to save you?" Pridicus was curious.
Ran just continued smiling.
They continued along this maze-like path until they reached a fork in the road.
"The left one leads closer to outside while the right one goes deeper inside." Pridicus spoke; obviously since this was the resting place of his ancestors and even parents, he would know this place like the back of his hand.
Ran smelled the air, "let's go left."
As they continued toward the surface, the amount of lackeys they encountered soared and everytime they did encounter them, they would be in groups of two or three every twenty or so seconds. All of them were rank-6.
Finally, after walking over more dead, headless, bodies, they reached the surface.
It was pitch black outside, signifying the time of day. The entrance was actually in the forest somewhat near the battlefield where Ran once fought.
But once they got outside, Ran was immediately infuriated beyond the limits of human imagination!