[Lilith]
The body of Roul lurched and slithered its way towards us. It was unnatural, a body isn't supposed to move like this. His small dwarf body seemingly stretched beyond recognition, alongside his face contorting and looking disembodied.
I was able to track it easily, my Dragon eye made sure of that. I know this isn't Roul, the dwarf was no longer with us. This was Mandy taking control over his dead body with no remorse for it, and that pissed me off. I felt the heat rise from my left arm, my dragon eye glowed even more as the monster got even closer.
It seemed to be aiming for me as it lunged forward. I tried to plunge my shortsword into its deformed head, but only managed to plunge my sword right onto its neck. I then braced myself for the bite that this monster was going to take.
"Lilith!" I heard Kota yell, his staff aimed at the monster.
However, Mandy took advantage of this moment. Seeing that he was distracted, Mandy got up from the couch and readied himself to launch. "Let's get this party started! Take it up to the sky! Get some fresh air!"
Eh, the sky?!
"Ugh?!" I yelped as I felt the snakelike monster bite into the side of my stomach. The monster sank its teeth into me, though it wouldn't prove fatal thanks to my Mana cloaking. It's body tensing up, readying for something. Suddenly, I found myself propelled up into the ceiling, crashing through the roof and into the sunny sky. The monster let go of me, sending me falling down and onto the roof of the Mallory house. Ugh, I got distracted by Kota!
I tumbled momentarily, almost falling off the roof before I caught myself by grabbing where a roof tile once was. I clambered my way back up, seeing as the Snake-Like monster fell back down. There was a loud thud as it fell, then it laid motionless for a moment before twitching back to life.
It stood tall, its legs now conjoined to make a tail of sorts. Despite Roul's own small stature, this abomination made due with it and stretched it beyond human nature. With the sunlight beaming at it, I could see all the flesh and blood in broad daylight. Disgusting. It was then that it looked at me.
"S-save me!" A disembodied voice came out of its mouth. It sounded like Roul, but I knew it wasn't. This wasn't the person that was alive, I can't let that get to me! I scoured the roof to find my short sword, only to see that it was just a few feet away from me.
"You…you aren't Roul! So drop dead!" I yelled, crawling back up to my feet to run across the roof tiles. I scooped up my shortsword and channeled my mana for my mana cloak. I needed to end this fight quickly, I don't know how long Kota would hang if it's with that pink haired freak!
The snakelike monster immediately slithered its way to me. The sound of the roof tiles beneath it thumping and creating a grainy noise filled the air, its mouth opened and retched out a horrid gasp.
My mana cloak was complete, I felt my muscles tightening and hardened. The roof tiles beneath me seemed to have cracked from the pressure, I then lifted my blade into the air. This monster only managed to get advantage of me beforehand because I didn't have this activated, now it shouldn't be able to touch me!
My hands began to glow a white aura, I concentrated. I couldn't exert too much mana into this or else I'd either cut this whole building in half or worse. I need to pour so that it can cut cleanly into this thing!
Just as I was starting my charge, something changed with the monster. Where its arms presumably were before melting into itself, I could see the skin moving. And before I could blink, I saw the arms of the monster spurt out. They stretched wide, skin connected the bottom of the arms to the body. Almost…like a bird? The whole thing caught me off guard, these things can mutate?
Suddenly, it began to flap its flesh wings. Slowly rising into the air in a clumsily fashion, like a newborn that was still learning. It only got a few feet up in the air before it exhausted itself and fell to the roof once more, roof tiles breaking and falling down. This was the perfect time to strike it, Lilith!
I started to charge my mana once more, the white aura surrounding me once more as I ran my way to the monster. It must've known it was in danger once more as it tried to flap its wings with more effort, being able to lift itself once more into the air.
"No! You are not getting away!" I yelled Angrily. Reaching the peak of the roofs, I jumped into the air to strike a blow to the now flying monster. It tried to flee, but it was too late, I closed the gap between us. "Fire king style: Flash strike!" Mana surged through my hand, increasing the speed and strength of it. Then I struck down with my short sword down in the air, slicing right through the monster's right wing.
Blood splattered along my clothes as I landed, the flying monster falling and splatting onto the roof again. It screeched in agony before letting out a low moan, I couldn't hear the wings flapping nor could I hear movement. As I turned around to face it, I noticed something strange. The monster itself didn't disintegrate, rather…it stayed, its body blackened and began to turn to mush. Like it was decaying like a dead body.
"…huh?" I let out a confused gasp. Bodies don't usually do this…why isn't this body disappearing? I gazed down at my short sword. Aren't they supposed to disappear and turn into mana?
And then I remembered something. It was something that one of the guards from Ithryll brought up to me and Kota during the Prusha festival, by the pretty guard lady, Lady sierra!
"-Rather it stops the mana flow in the body if made contact with the Body. Meaning it would stop all magic casting all together." Her words echoed in my thoughts. She said those words when looking at my short sword. Thinking about it, I almost forgot that it did that…Maybe it's because I haven't really fought anyone who used magic that much.
I then stared back at the body, trying to figure out what was happening with it. If I cut it…does that mean I stopped the mana inside it from going anywhere?
I need to ask Kota about this-Wait, Kota! He's still down below me!
"Ah, Damn it!" I frantically ran to the hole that I blasted out of, hopping down into it. The room that Adam was using had a fairly tall ceiling considering this house was two stories.
Landing with a thud, I quickly began to search for Kota.
"Kota?!" I yelled, looking around the room. Just behind the door into the main floor, I could still hear Kale and the rest fighting the tall metal guy named Victor. But I was too focused on Kota, where was he?!
Nowhere.
I began to panic, frantically roaming the room and looking at every corner of the room to find him. He wasn't in this room?! There was no sign of Mandy as well, it didn't seem like a fight even happened in here besides the attack the monster did with me.
"No, no, no, no…No!" I repeated myself, terrified. Did Mandy take him? Where? Where?!
I found myself stumbling across the room before slamming myself against the door, panic surging through me. But it wasn't only just that feeling, a rising sensation of rage began to build inside me. The sudden guilt of being responsible for him began to build.
Why did I take so long to get down here?! If I hadn't wasted time and got distracted, this wouldn't have happened! Now I can't find him! This is my fault!
"Gah!! Damn it! Damn it!" I yelled angrily. I slammed my left hand into the wall, a burning sensation arose from it. I was losing control again, I could feel my left eye brimming with mana alongside my left arm. The anger in me reached a point.
Why?! That pink haired freak, I'll kill him! I'll kill him!! And the only person here who would know where he might be…Is that Victor guy…
Hearing the sizzle and seeing the blackening of the wall my left arm hurled itself into, I pulled my hand off. A fiery aura emanated from it, but I didn't mind. Heavily breathing, I made my way to the door and harshly pulled it open to move into the main floor.
Out on the main floor, I saw Elena on the left side of Victor. She firmly stood her place as she held him, her whip blade wrapped around his left metallic arm and right shoulder. Kale seemed to have been struck down, as he was seemingly getting back up when I opened the door. Korbyn had landed an attack on Victor, his curved sword impaled into victor's right leg. Meanwhile, Victor seemed to be particularly pissed, readying his right arm for a mighty swing.
But all of them had stopped their actions as soon as they heard me, Both Elena and Kale gave me a surprised and concerned look.
At this moment, it seemed like…Victor wasn't the biggest problem here now. I could feel the heat and anger rising in me once more as I stared angrily at Victor.
"You…Where is he?" I felt like I had to hold back my words from turning into screaming. And when those words didn't seem to get an answer from Victor, I flared. My left arm felt hotter, my left eye felt a surge of mana go through it. I couldn't hold my anger in, my voice echoed loudly through the house with a fiery rage.
"Where. is. Mandy?!"
[Kota]
"Lilith!" I yelled out to Lilith. The snakelike monster slithered its way to her, biting into her stomach before rocketing through the ceiling. Shit, I was too slow! I should've casted something when I had the chance!
A streak black flashed my vision and I realized that Mandy was making his move, at a blindly fast speed that I could barely see. His bo staff struck my staff, letting the tip of it hit the floor. At the speed he was going, I couldn't react to anything he'd be doing. His devilish smile came into view as he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, the scent of wet moss and wet earth filled my nose.
Wait, why was I smelling that? It wasn't coming from Mandy, Mandy smells like…Flowers? Odd.
"Haha! Just you and me, lover boy! Let's make this more close and personal!" Mandy said gleefully, his open hand raised into the air and was emitting an orange color. He spun his index finger in a circle, looking at me with interest. "I like it more intimate."
For some reason, I felt a push of air hit me from behind. Turning my head, I realized something. A large blue circle appeared behind me, a gate. When did this appear?! On the other side of the gate, I saw that it led into…a cave? The rocky natural tunnels were shrouded in darkness besides a couple of torches that only seemed to brighten it up just by a little, the scent of wet stone and moss hit me harder as I looked at the gate.
"Here we go!" Mandy said as he tossed me right through the gate, I found myself tumbling and rolling across the cold stone ground momentarily before facing the rocky ceiling. "More comfy for me, to be honest!"
I saw Mandy casually walking through the blue magic gate, whistling as he did. The background of Adam's room slowly becomes smaller and smaller as it seemingly vanishes, the magical gate blipping out of thin air.
"How…where are we?" I warily asked, scrambling to my feet. "How'd you get us here?" My eyes darted around the cave. Inside this cave was wet moss growing around us, the faint noise of what sounded like water rushing echoed through the cave. The floor was covered with rocky rubble and cave mushrooms, with some insects crawling around the floor. The cave itself was quite large, the ceiling had some crystal forming along it.
…where did Mandy take me?
"Oh, I thought you'd be the wizard here. It's a teleporter, silly goose!" Mandy waved his finger around as he walked closer to me. "Now it's just one on one, me and you…"
"You can use teleportation magic without a magic circle?" I remember Korbyn trying to use one to teleport us back to Ozoth, but here was Mandy…not using one. In fact, he didn't even need to do an incantation for one.
"Oh, there's a lot of things you don't know about me. I got some…tricks up my sleeves, just like you…" Mandy's blue eyes then lit up, he gave me a chilling look as he raised his hand. His open palm looked like it was readying for something. "And speaking of you…I got something that I want to know, Personally."
With remarkable speed, Mandy pounced me. His arm outstretched and slammed into my chest, sending me sprawling into the cave floor. My staff tossed to the side, Mandy sat on top of me. His legs pinning my arms to the floor, making me unable to move. Even with his small stature compared to me, he was oddly strong. His blue eyes stared at me with curiosity, his hand that was touching me beginning to glow.
"Let's see if what I felt before is still there." Mandy said as he began to absorb my mana. I felt something being pulled from me as Mandy's expression turned from curiosity…to excitement. He then immediately pulled his hand from me, looking at his own hand with amusement. "Hohoho! So that's what it is! You dirty boy…"
"Gah! What the hell! Are you toying with me?!" I yelled back at Mandy. I was quite confused by all of this, why did Mandy take me here? Was this a part of Arael's plans? Why's he just siphoning my mana?
"Fufu…a little bit." Mandy looked down at me. "When I siphoned your mana before, it felt odd. Out of place. Something wasn't right with you, including the fact you have two mana pools inside you. One that felt right and the other that didn't, that's not something that happens here."
"What's it to you?" I tried to get my unpin from Mandy, trying to lift my arms from underneath him. But Mandy then put both hands into my shoulders. Leaning even closer to me until we were just inches away from each other, there was a wickedness to his smile as he spoke once more.
"Arael."
I froze up when I heard that name echoing through the cave. Mandy began to laugh as he saw my reaction. "Haha…I knew something was fishy when she spoke about someone exactly like you. A silent spell caster, someone who would get in my way and her wishes. I thought she was bullshitting me, until you really showed up…she never tells me things like that."
I felt the blood drain from my head, I began to struggle even more underneath her. Arael told Mandy about me, that's how he knew about me back in Prusha. Araels has been keeping an eye on me somehow and it was through Mandy. And if Arael was guiding Mandy…that means he was given a task that involved the Mallory family.
Something is important about the Mallory's.
"You…why are you targeting th-mmph!" Before I could finish my sentence, Mandy pressed his hand against my mouth. His face slowly turned serious, he leaned closer to me and almost whispered his next words.
"You know Arael. Which means…You aren't from here. You are from my old world, aren't you?"