I moved more of the rocks to the side to uncover the spear. This filled the entire room with a thick cloud of dust.
I looked around but I could not find the weapon at first glance. So, I just decided to wait until most of the dust had settled to actively search for the object.
With this little time that I had bought I decided to ask the question that had burned inside my mind for the past few days. "Dad. Did… anyone else make it out?"
He looked up when I asked the question. "No, but then again I also did not know that you were alive."
He hesitated for a moment before he talked again. "What actually happened? I mean people turning into demons usually does not happen."
I felt my blood turning cold as I looked back at the memory that had haunted me for years now. I took a deep breath and then spoke.
"To be honest, I don't really know myself. Alice and I managed to escape the village. since the weather was getting bad, she suggested to take shelter in that old caste on the hill. But when we got there, she started to act weird. I ignored it and did everything she asked. But we were greeted by a silvery four-armed demon when we got inside. It talked about a supreme being, or a lord of some sorts. And even tough it stated that it wanted to kill me to eat me, it was not allowed to do so. Instead that supreme being had ordered it to create the mark that would turn me into this. Then the roof collapsed, and the boulders killed all of us. I guess one or two years passed after that and I somehow came back like this."
It took another moment for the dust to completely settle but the air was now clear enough for both of us to see the entire room. it did not take long for me to find the spear after this while my dad looked at the rubble that had fallen on top of us.
"So, you really got this on your back and all it did was break your wings?"
I tried to pick the spear up with my tail as I did not want to touch it with my hands. To my surprise it was rather easy to do so.
"Yes. I believe that, that place is where I crawled out of the rubble."
I pointed at the place on the floor where there were deep fresh claw markings where I struggled to get out. My father walked over to the damaged floor and stroke his hand along the carvings.
"How strong are your claws? I mean marks like this are just insane."
"I don't know. But I did snap someone's sword in half once."
After finding out that just holding the spear was completely harmless, I took it over in my hands. The steel was cold, a lot colder than I had expected. I saw how it had a small container near the handle. The container was half full. From there I figured that one could either shoot it for times or shoot it twice. Depending on if it was filled in between the first or the last time my father shoot at me.
I handed the weapon back to him.
"Was it refilled in-between shots?"
"No, but I can still shoot it two times."
He aimed to my left and made sure that this time he did not hit a building. He pulled the trigger, and an explosion blew away the floor a few meters away from me. immediately I could feel how the metallic substance started to drain my magic.
"What was that for?!"
I spread my wings to move to a place where the metallic substance did not affect me as much. But my father now aimed the weapon at me.
"please don't move. I don't want to shoot you."
I froze and pressed my wings against my back to show that I would not fly away.
"Why?"
"Gustave, please work along. Alright? I-I know that you are you. You talk like you did; you act like you did. And even some parts of your face still resemble your old self. But how much of you is left? How do I know my own son won't rip me to pieces the next time I turn around?"
The hand in which he held the spear was trembling.
"Please give me something I can work with. Really, I am glad to have you back. so please, please don't let me lose you again."
I lowered my head.
"I can't. I could enter your mind and share my memories with you. But I am afraid that most of them would only make this situation worse."
The substance that had been fired earlier still continued to drain my magic. Even when an uncomfortable silence followed, I did not dare to move. But as soon as the substance had finished eating away my magic, I started to feel extremely nauseous until the point where my legs could no longer carry me.
I fell on one knee an threw up. A slightly glowing mixture of souls and meat tainted the floor. My father let go of the weapon immediately. With a loud clattering sound, it fell on the floor. He ran over towards me and tried to help me to get away from the substance.
"I am so, so sorry. I can't believe that I actually shot on purpose. What has gotten into me?"
I still had to mostly walk on my own since my father could not support my weight. Once I was far enough away from the substance, I started to feel a little better.
Tough I still felt nauseous and weak I managed to fly up and landed a few meters in front of him. From there I infiltrated my fathers mind to check if he had any other weapons of that nature.
("You want to know how much of me is still left?")
He flinched back as he heard my voice in his head.
("I believe the fact that you still are breathing is proof enough that I am still somewhere in here. you shot me three times. Three times! And after the first two times I even broke my wings trying to save you!")
"I- I'm sorry. But how could I know for sure?"
("You realise that I could have done this at any time, right? I could have taken over and forced you to go back to whatever you were doing in Atlantis. I could have destroyed all that you have been building since you came here. And they wouldn't even know until they jammed one of those detection crystals in your face!")
I let him out of my control and left his mind. My father took a step towards me, but I raised my wings and bared my fangs. But while my tail flung behind me and my glowing eyes penetrated his being, he still came closer.
I growled at him as he kept coming closer. And still, he wouldn't back down.
I prepared to fly away again, but he managed to grab one of the spikes close to my elbow. If I made a rapid movement now, he could lose his hand.
"How come that you are so sure now that I wont bite your head of now that you are close?"
"Because then you would have already done that. You are right even completely drained of magic you could probably kill me without lifting a finger. But the important part is that you didn't. Gustave, you are my son. I should have trusted you when you told me that you are at least partially still you. I was wrong to shoot you and now you can hate me all you want. But at least know that I believe you know and that I am here for you now."