The birds fluttered away, sensing an appalling scream from the nearby farm house. Jinx's hands grasped and scratched his throat as he remembered how he choked to death at the night of the festival.
He heaved. His lungs burned from the excessive air intake. His body turned 360 degrees, head spinning from the abrupt movement. He couldn't believe it.
"Didn't I die?" he asked himself again.
He did die. He was sure of it, but why was he alive again? What was happening to him?
He slipped off the bed and walked with uneasiness. He needed answers and he was aware that his master had them.
The farm house was empty. The lack of human interaction after awakening with so many questions about a peculiar occurrence concerning his death made him panic.
"Master! Master Salem?!"
Not a single corner of the house was left unsearched. He even looked inside the closet despite the impossibility of his seven foot and six inches guardian to fit inside. The man even had to bend over so that he could fit through the door.
Once he yanked the main entrance of the house open, he clashed against a hard wall of muscles.
Jinx laid on the ground with his hand nursing his poor head.
"Salem, are you here?" a strong, thick, and deep bass voice alerted Jinx due to its familiarity.
"Sir Rorik?" Jinx called, his own voice cracked with unending puberty.
Rorik's head could not be seen. Like Salem, the man was a tower. He was unbelievably taller than Salem himself.
"Ma' boy!" The man greeted him and tried to bend himself over so that he could get in.
Jinx almost had a mini heart attack. He stopped Rorik then and there.
"Sir, don't even think about it! I'll join you outside."
The visitor chuckled with embarrassment and moved aside for Jinx to make his exit. The young man already had a throbbing headache from the hard hit and from the sunlight that he had to take in directly with his eyes. He needed to look up to see Rorik's face clearly.
He had a gigantic hammer that weighed 3 tons. It was resting on his left broad shoulder. His hammer Remorse was said to belong to an archangel who had died in the hands of El Diablo, a powerful creature who served the Elysian God before succumbing to betrayal.
Rorik was half a century years old. He was the headmaster of Ecclesia Academy and belonged to the trusted circle of the Executive Minister of the Elysian Church. Although Salem was excommunicated, they still kept in touch for many reasons.
The man's silver smooth hair was brushed back and left a lone curl on his forehead. He had the same outfit as Salem yet he did not wear the mask all the time. No one had ever seen Salem without it except for Salem's parents and Rorik. Rumor has it and as per Mister Dagen's gossiping tongue, Salem had a gruesome appearance and was deformed because of an accident.
"Sir, what brings you here?" As much as Jinx would like to offer hospitality, this man won't even fit in their chair. The farmhouse would break once he puts one foot in.
"I have heard of what had happened in Satbury village, where is Salem?"
Jinx's heart thumped loudly in his chest. He was still in the crisis of confusion and his unsettled nerves were getting prominent each second. Cold sweat sheathed his skin, his eyes kept searching for a shadow of either Karma or his master.
Rorik's eyes sharply glanced at the roof, causing the boy to jump a little. Kou was watching the two of them with arms crossed. His wolf tail was calmly moving from side to side while the dragon appendage was limp and unmoving.
"A viel? What in Elysian's name is Salem keeping here? Is this what Scorch meant about 'Curse 1 alert, leveling between Basilisk and Dragon and an issue that I'd like to camouflage in the word et cetera'?"
The different stages or curses of vessels were: neonates (infant), scion (young child), juvenile, fledgling, behemoth, numen, and God. The weakest stage was the neonate and the strongest curse stage was God. Despite the stages, a neonate could still pose a great threat just like what happened last night. For that reason, the Elysian church released levels to categorize the danger and the destruction that the vessels will or had caused.
Because the neonates eliminated an entire village and had distributed products that possessed a calamity that could destroy a city, Salem labeled their level between Basilisk and Dragon. It was a danger level wherein a vessel could wipe out an entire village (Basilisk) to an entire city (Dragon).
But in all honesty, Rorik could not believe what his eyes were seeing. The last time he had seen a viel was twenty years ago. They were hiding, hibernating, avoiding humans, and minding their own business. If Canaan would fall in the hands of another Demon Lord, he doubted that the viels would lend a hand.
What was one doing here in the territory of a talented tamer like Salem?
Rorik took note of Kou's appearance. His physical attributes were similar to King Kairon's personal knight.
"U...uh…" Jinx had no idea how to explain the situation. Out of the senility that was starting to visit Rorik, he placed his hammer down and asked Jinx to hold it for him.
Jinx realized, at that moment, that he was going to die again.
The young man held the hammer by its shaft, but because of its heaviness, and for the reason that only Rorik could hold a 3 ton hammer and toss it around like a bag of feathers, Jinx was pushed out of balance and was about to be squashed without Rorik knowing.
Glitches of pink lightning sparked beside him and before he could turn into a mashed human flesh for meat pie, Kou held the hammer with one hand and saved him once again.
"He almost died," Kou said, slapping humor to Rorik's stern attitude towards him.
The headmaster burst into a fit of hearty laughter and grasped the hammer.
"My bad!"
"You can't say 'My bad' to a head that's already liquidized, can ya?" Jinx grumbled.
"No, I cannot, but I must say it to Salem once he discovers that I surrendered this viel to the Elysian Church," Rorik announced.
This was what Jinx was afraid of. Viels were not tolerated in human society. Once they were seen, even if they were not attacking anyone, seminarians would capture and subdue them. They had killed Queen Eris, King Kairon's mother, in cold-blood. They had entirely turned their backs on humanity and embraced the monstrous parts that were sewn to them.
Kou released surges of electricity but were directly absorbed by Rorik's hammer, Remorse. He hoisted his massive weapon with ease and attempted to strike Kou to his side. Kou dodged the attack, not realizing that Jinx would receive the direct hit.
K.O.
The teenager wasn't given the chance to process the pain. What he saw was white light after the vision of the hammer coming in contact with his head. The bright and blinding light turned into an abysmal darkness of the unknown.
"Mortuus iterum? (You died again?)" someone queried with mock in its baritone voice that vibrates with a natural pur.
Jinx had no clue how he understood that but he did so, without difficulty or knowledge of the language used.
The darkness shrank. The shabby wooden walls and flooring grew from where he stood. A shackled juvenile was kneeling in front of him that gave Jinx a scare. The juvenile's neck, wrists, and ankles were chained to the wall. There was a puddle of black goo underneath it and a wooden cross staked to its right chest.
Naturally, Jinx would run to the nearest door; but there was no door. He merely crashed against a wall, hurting himself and making the vessel scoff.
"Etiam in morte, tu adhuc stolide temeraria (Even in death, you are still stupidly reckless)," it mocked.
Jinx was gasping cold air, each breath stabbing his lungs. It was his first time being conscious in his death and he had to talk to an ugly vessel at that. Was his soul in sheol?
"So I am dead, aren't I? Why do I keep coming back?"
"Tu saltem scio quod vos non humana? (You are at least aware that you aren't human?)"
Jinx snapped at it. "What are you saying? Of course I'm human!"
"Nullus homo moritur, et redit tempus. (No human dies and comes back every time)."
Jinx kept his distance but his voice was getting louder and bolder.
"My master must have done something. He always has some power that we don't know about!" Jinx lied to himself, stepping back once the shackles restraining the vessel fell apart. The stake withdrew by itself, emitting the squelchy sound of flesh.
It rose and towered over him. The areas where the chains were left deep lesions that closed in an instant with smoke coming out.
"Salem is an incredible man, but he is just that, a man. No matter how good a man is, when pushed into a corner of desperation, a bad choice will be made as an instinct of survival," the sheol creature said.
Air was knocked out of Jinx's lungs when the shackles that once restrained the vessel lunged themselves to him, hauling his body against the wall. He screamed from the piercing sensation on his limbs. The cross grew in size; his back was mercilessly aligned to it, hands and feet were nailed to the wood.
"Morieris enim et nunc sic me ludere. (You're dead for now so let me play)." It turned away from him, a door materializing.
"Wait! I need to know what I am!"
The vessel ignored him, pulling the door open.
What it didn't expect was someone standing behind it.
"Forgive Kou for his intrusion. He was going to knock," the knight politely greeted it.