"Amari" A voice called out.
"Amari,"
"Amari,"
The voice was feminine and soft. She called out to him, like a siren reaching out to sailors lost at sea. The voice distorted, lowered, and increased in volume but it remained there, softly calling in his ears.
Until...
"Amari!"
One more yell brought him to his senses. He shot up abruptly and rubbed his head seconds later. A stab of pain shot into his mind as a cool breeze tickled his bare chest. He smelled a tender aroma wafting through the air and teased his virgin nostrils. It almost made him want to fly to where it was cooked.
"Oww. Too loud…" He muttered, dropping back to the bed, eyes still open.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You were talking in your sleep, and um-"
"Lilia?"
Amari turned to look at Lilia. Why was she in his room? And more importantly, why was he naked from his crotch up?
"Um, it's now what it looks like. It's just that after the, y'know, thing with the thing…"
Amari chuckled, then clutched his head to ease his pain.
"Don't worry you don't need to explain anything." He said, triggering a relieved sigh.
His eyes darted around the room and settled on Lilia's figure. After a century, the words came out. "What was I saying in my sleep, though?"
Lilia tilted her head to the side. "I'm not really sure, but I think you called out names."
"What names?" Amari asked, sounding more confident than he was.
"I think they were Jesmine and Edwald or something along those lines."
"It-" Amari spoke, instinctively about to correct her, but she interrupted.
"If this is about me staying here, I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I won't do it again, I promise."
She then ran out of the room as fast as she could.
Amari stared at the door for a while before shaking his head.
"Well, I don't know much about girls, but that doesn't seem normal," he said, sticking one leg out of the bed.
His room in the tent wasn't nearly as spacious as Reida and Felaud's den. However, it was much larger than the average room on Earth. The room had a large bed and several unrecognizable scented candles. There was even a welcome mat at the door.
A small desk lay to the side. On top of it, a few blank parchments and a bottle of ink stood together. The parchment wasn't paper, but it had that familiar dry scent that he'd always adored about physical books.
The ink was… well, inky!
'This is more comfortable than Reida's and Felaud's place.'
His mind was clearer now and Amari had time to think. Memories of the early morning flooded his mind, and he remembered the last few notifications he'd received after killing The Scourge.
[Mission Accomplished:
[Reward: (Skill: Shadow Sword), Shadow Grimoire, 200 SP]
[Calculating Additional Rewards]
[Additional rewards calculated]
[Additional Rewards:]
[Dream Element Unlocked]
[Nightmare Sub-Element Unlocked]
[Night Element Unlocked]
[Basic Dream Manipulation Unlocked.]
[Basic Nightmare Manipulation Unlocked]
[Basic Night Manipulation Unlocked]
[Basic Sword Technique Unlocked.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Rewards Not Authorized]
[Breach detected in the system]
[Warning!]
He had no idea what to think about it. The rewards were definitely pleasant, but that brought up so many questions. What would happen to the system? Would the breach detected affect him? Amari really didn't know. And a certain part of him didn't want to know.
"Whatever, it just means Belat and I will get an upgrade anyway." He muttered to himself, pacing around the room.
Then it hit him.
"Belat? Where's Belat?!!"
He was still shirtless and the illusion of clear-headedness faded, as his headache hit him back at three times the original force. But that didn't matter. Belat was missing. How could Belat go missing?!
"Lilia! Fuller! Ken!" He yelled out the names of the only demons he knew and rushed from room to room in the tent.
Room one. Room two. Room three.
Yet, still no Belat.
His energy flared up from time to time, and dark swirls of shadow appeared around his body. They swirled and swung around the room with mystical whooshing noises, causing the torches and candles in the tent to flicker heavily.
"What's going on? I came here as fast as I could!" A gust of wind appeared, and a voice followed.
Amari's neck snapped back. Fuller stood there, garbed in what was supposed to be a white apron. But it wasn't fully white. It had blood stains, changing the apron's colour.
"You!" Amari snarled and the shadows around his body transformed into long, cold tendrils.
At full force, the tendrils slammed into Fuller, pinning him against the wall.
"It has to be you. Where is my brother? Where did you take him?"
Fuller looked around frantically then back at Amari. He was met by a new tendril to his throat, and unlike the rest of them, the tendril tightened with each second.
"I shwear, I didn't take your brudder anywhere. Pleashhe trusht me!" His words were difficult to make out but Amari managed.
"And why should I? After you threatened me the first time I met? You also have my brother's scent on you so just spit it out. Where is he?"
"No, pleashee I was helping him. He losht a lot of blood from your fight againsht the monster, so I had to perform a shurgery!"
The knot on Amari's face tightened, but he loosened the grip around the demon's body.
Fuller fell to the ground coughing. The fiery red skin of his neck had vague purple marks around it. His eyes settled on Amari's menacing figure and he looked away immediately.
"I'll take you to… him." The demon gasped, scraping the floor as he tried to stand.
Amari nodded slowly, and a few seconds later they reached the "operating room". It was a room reminiscent of his own bedroom in the tent. However, instead of a bed in the middle of the room, there was a large wooden slab that served as an operating table.
"Belat…"
The wolf pup's small body lay on the operating table. A small pit of blood and intestines rose and fell with the pup's breathing rhythm.
"There he is," Fuller muttered. "We found him in the middle of that Demon's Best stomach and luckily, it hadn't started digesting your brother yet. However, his previous injuries and overuse of mana put him in critical condition."
Amari walked over to the table and bent down.
"How will he do? Will he survive?" He asked, looking at the grainy wooden legs of the table.
He couldn't look at him at that moment. He wouldn't.
"Don't worry. He can make it if the others get back on time. Right now it's only you, I, and Ken here. I asked the others to get something that would reduce your brother's pain and heal the wound easily."
Amari's eyes didn't leave the table's legs. Eventually, they wandered to the wall, which was completely painted by the random splashes of Belat's blood.
The silence was deafening, and for a brief moment, the only sounds they could hear were the gurgling sounds of Belat's intestines and the spurting of his blood.
Fuller spoke.
"Look if it's about that time, I'm sor-"
Amari held a hand up and rose from the ground.
"No. It's not you that needs to apologize. It's me. I understand that even then, you had your own reasons for doing what you did. I don't know what happened at that moment. So I'm sorry for hurting you."
He stretched a hand forward, and Fuller flinched.
'I guess it was that painful, huh?'
But the boy didn't have the demeanour of someone just been hurt.
"Well, since you said it, I don't know what you expect me to say. That you've been forgiven? That it's okay? Honestly, it's really not."
The following silence was bigger than the last and Amari hated it. It reminded him of his own failings as a brother and son.
His throat tightened and his mouth dried.
"I'm sorry," he repeated.
Fuller sighed.
"Don't worry about it. I know how it feels too and I would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes but be careful. You may think you're powerful, but you're not. You never know what anyone is hiding or what people are capable of. Remember that,"
Amari stood there, his hand still outstretched.
'I'm really sorry, Fuller. I hope you can understand that.' He thought to himself then looked at the floor.
What felt like hours later, Lilia and the other demons returned. They each walked into the operating room holding different herbs and plants. When they saw Amari there, many of them held back their words.
Eventually, someone found the courage to talk.
"What happened here?"