Lucy Rudolf's/Justine's P.O.V
The first place I felt inclined to check was the area I first found Vitas, on the rooftops closer to my neighborhood. I would have called out her name, but I didn't want to draw too much attention.
I slumped down on the rooftop. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Why did I think she was going to be here anyway?
I thought to myself for a while, about different places she could be. What if she wasn't even transformed right now?
I scratched my head in frustration. How was I going to find one person in such a populated city?
"What am I doing? Nothing is gonna get done with me sitting here." I scolded myself as I picked myself back up. Maybe my staff could help me out.
I summoned the crystal staff Polori showed me and held it out; surely it was used for more than fighting.
After a minute, a tiny light protruded from the violet crystal, and I unconsciously smiled. It soon went away when I realized that the light turned to a dark shade of green.
"That's not a Hero." I focused on the light, trying to figure out what this meant. I saw two others further away, but it was a dark red.
"And not a Villain." My heart sunk, it could have only been one other thing.
The green light approached the blue one at a freakishly fast pace. After looking around, I jumped onto a taller building and checked the crystal again.
It felt like my heart was going to jump straight out of my chest. This was a monster; something I was not able to control nor defeat. I watched as it started to crawl around the area I was at ten seconds ago.
It resembled something in your childhood nightmares; a tall pitch black body, long arms and legs, and giant round, snow-white eyes; not to mention this thing was at least 4 times my size.
I really only had two options. Run away and hope nothing happens to the other Heroes and Villains, or fight and possibly be killed.
Polori chose me for a reason, and that reason still remained a mystery to me. I wouldn't be a Hero if I ran away from a fight, and people I care about would most likely be killed if I did end up doing that.
But what could I do? This thing is obviously hunting me, and possibly Malefici and Galifici, so would it be wise to just jump out and attack?
I threw the idea of a direct attack out of the window. What I needed was to enable him, since I knew I couldn't kill this thing on my own. I looked around the corner to make sure the thing was still lurking in the area I just left.
Once I turned back, I was greeted with a faded light. It was Polori.
"Justine, you need to get out of here. Only someone as strong as Life or Death can kill one of these monsters."
I shook my head. "I can't just let it continue hunting us like we're animals! I need to do something to make it go away, at least for the time being."
Polori frowned, but didn't turn down my idea. "I saw something in you when we first met, and I wasn't sure what it was. I think I may have just figured it out. If you really want to through with this, you need your partners strength."
"Malefici is gone, Polori. He got sick and had to go back home, he's miles away!"
She snapped her fingers. "I said your partner's strength, not your partner."
"What do you mean?"
"Not only did you become battle partners, you also share some of your powers with each other. This can only happen when you summon it, however. That is what the black and white spots were."
"Are you telling my I have some of Malefici's power?"
She shook her head. "No, you can have all of it on top of the power you already have. You should be able to stand a chance against this thing with the two combined. I wouldn't suggest using this a lot though, this form drains the stamina from users faster than anything else."
I smiled. Maybe I didn't have to die in the next five minutes.
Polori disappeared, and the staff's crystal started to turn black. This must have been Malefici's magic.
I touched my white gloved hand to the crystal, and the white fabric of my outfit seemed to grow black stripes. Besides that, everything else seemed normal.
So what was I now? A Demon Wizard? This was too confusing.
I shook my head. This was no time to think about that. What I needed to do was get this monster as far away from the city as possible.
My hand tightened around the now blackened staff, and I leaped back down.
"Hey! Over here ugly!" I tried to get its attention. It whipped it's head in my direction, and opened its mouth to reveal hundreds of shark-like teeth. I shuddered internally.
I stuck to the rooftops to avoid any unwanted attention, and it proved to be rather helpful, since the monster seemed to be pretty bad with jumping across great distances.
I sped across the rooftops not even bothering to look around. My only concern was getting this thing out of the city.
It felt like an eternity up in the sky, but i eventually made it to the edge of the city. From there, I would have to go through the forest.
The last building must have been the highest, and I somehow managed to land on my feet from the eighth story.
I sprinted through the forest with the extra power that was given to me. Even with this new power, I could still hear the monsters hands and feet pound on the forest floor.
In front of me was another ledge, but I couldn't remember anything like this around the city. I must have gone too far.
I abruptly stopped before I fell, and I looked down to find an angry river below. I had two choices, again. Jump, and possibly die, or stay and die by the hands of this monster.
The answer was as plain as day. I leapt off the edge, and braced myself for the landing. What scared me more than actually jumping off the cliff was the sight of seeing the monster jump as well.
The air was knocked out of my lungs the moment I hit the water, but I was thankful that it wasn't as shallow as it appeared to be. This river had to be at least 20 feet deep.
Whatever air I had left disappeared when another figure crashed through the water. Even with magic, I still had a hard time seeing underwater. It searched around for me, and my heart dropped when it stared right at me.
I could not determine if it saw me, but I opted for not moving. What if the monster couldn't see underwater either?
It turned away and went the other direction for a while, and I slowly moved back. Hopefully this thing had no sense of direction.
I felt an emptiness somewhere in my torso, not one of those emotional holes, but an actual hole.
My feet stopped in their tracks, and I couldn't even see two inches in front of my face. There must have been two monsters that entered the river, not just one.
Although I lost all of my senses, I could feel no pain. I could barely make out what happened, but I do somewhat remember seeing the colors of my outfit reverse.
That is when I knew what was going on. They wanted to use us, and I was going to be the first tool they would use.
All at once, I felt a sharp pain where the wound should have been. What was going to happen?
I could no longer determine if I was even awake at this point, my only thought was whether or not Malefici would even realize that something is wrong, or if anyone else would.
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Everett Ailan's/Malefici's P.O.V
I pushed myself up on my bed and buried my head in my hands. My little brother practically kicked the door open.
"Everett! Are you alright? I heard you screaming."
I picked my head up. "It was just a nightmare Everest, I'll be fine."
After getting out of bed, I opened the blinds and took a look outside. It was pitch black, and not a star could be seen. Tiny water droplets lingered on the window.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"About 12 hours, Everett. Justine wanted you to go home after you fell asleep on that building today, so I took you home."
"You did WHAT?" I raced back over to the other side of the room and took him by the collar of his t-shirt.
"I took you home Everett! You were in no shape to be out today!" he pried at my hands.
"That doesn't matter Everest. What happened to Justine?"
"She said something about looking for the others, whatever that meant! Can you let go?"
I frowned and let go of his shirt before pushing him away. "She shouldn't just wander off like that. What if something happened to her?"
Everest walked back in and grinned. "Awww, are you getting a superhero-crush???"
I smacked him upside the head. "No you moron, I'll get in trouble if I let anything bad happen to her!"
I went back to the window and opened the blinds completely. After propping the window open, Everest grabbed my arm. "What are you doing? It's one in the morning!"
"I need to see if she's alright Everest. You can go with me if you want, but you can't stop me from going."
He hesitantly removed his hand from my arm. "I'll be back as soon as possible, alright?"
I traced the scythe mark before jumping out of the window. After landing in a small water puddle another figure manifested next to me.
"I can't let you go out by yourself, Malefici. We will find her, make sure she's alright, then go back to bed, ok?"
Galifici adjusted his cape before disappearing into the night.
What he didn't know was that the nightmare that I had involved Justine getting hurt, and me not being there.