The other one who was with him from the beginning, Kiana, entered. She was a rather short and slim woman with dark purple hair wearing this Victorian goth style stealth outfit that screamed rogue class vampire.
Although, this was not who she really was. It was Sun with a sly trick up her sleeve.
"Let's end this." Disguised Sun snarled, manifesting these red hooked blades and chains.
At first I thought we were at the same wavelength. Aware of the plan to quickly end things but Sun directed her chain and blade at me instead. I was lucky enough to duck and jolt backwards before it could swipe at me again. But doing so let Liveren free.
"Fool!" I felt like saying but bit my tongue as she ran at me again. I immediately knew her plan: to get a little sparring fun out of me whilst in disguise. It was annoying but it made the job of fooling Liveren more easier.
"You put a barrier around us using a portion of your own mana in order to freely let people in and out, didn't you?" I asked Liveren as I dodged his hand whips of light, which he called,
"Holy Light of Divinity!"
Every whip of his palm he made released the familiar Christian cross, except it had four eyes within it along with an odd crown. Like this world's Christian cross with a fictional twist to it. And every time he could even form the thought of the magic attacks, I smelled lemons and chlorine mixed with burnt books.
"I have nothing to say to you, Arsin." Liveren barked as soon as the light from his magic dissipated. And I was greeted again by the silent darkness on his face. Slowly raising a hand with the same cross attached to a gold chain wrapped around his fist. Every time he swung his fists around, a bright light emanated from it.
After dodging, another attack came from behind.The magic smelled like fire with a hint of cinnamon and wood. When I looked at it, a more enhanced version of the blade chains was in Sun's grasp. Heading for my legs at the same time that another one of Liveren's light magic headed for my head.
I had no choice but to jump slightly, spinning myself to stay within the tiny space between both magical attacks until they were far. I expected their recoveries to be quick, so I made my next move more quicker.
As Liveren prepped up many spears of light within our little circle and Sun pulled her other blade and chain towards me, I took just a split second to search and reach deep within my core of mana, with a profound inhale. Although I did not know what I was doing, somehow my body did.
"I have to admit. You have a pretty face, abilities that speak of long-time experience and qualities that scream reoccurring character." I began, taking one step closer until I could see the foggy blindness in his one eye. "It's unfortunate you had to meet me."
And with the gesture of two hands clawing the space from my chest, I pulled out thin strings of black and white that kept seeping out until a pair of translucent hands gripping onto the end of the string, popped out from within my chest. At this moment, Liveren jumped back, the "mini realm" we were in began to shake and distort heavily.
"Demon!" He only shouted and turned to his so called Kiana. "Let's end this now--!" Only for his face to turn pale. But it was too late for him to realize it. "Wait, elf ears...?"
I released my ability, listening to his voice losing strength. And the light from his eye slowly fading. Yet he looked my way, hovering a shaky hand hovered over the gaping wound in his chest.
"I didn't believe it at first, you know." He wheezed, coughing blood. Sun stood over him from behind, disguise drifting away to reveal her true form until she shifted into her male one. He wanted to kill the dying man off but I shook my head.
"Believe what?" I asked, watching Liveren fall to his knees.
"The rumors that the Mirrikhian Prince gazed into another realm and acquired forbidden knowledge." He raised his head to look at me straight in the eyes. "But I realized in our short-lived battle, that your powers were beyond the head Demon King's and almost on par with Father's." He then pointed to his eye. "I can faintly see this unknown aura dancing within your magic. It's so faint but it's there. Coming from your eye itself: a light of white yet encased within this fog of darkness. Like thin branches dancing in and out of sight. But with a strength so suffocating. Nothing that I had ever seen before."
I felt myself grin. "Your strength and knowledge is no joke, Sword of Arah."
A flash of fear crossed his eyes, but disappeared with a chuckle. "I see. My past has yet to die out it seems."
"No." I replied immediately. "I merely guessed."
And I was not lying. I guessed only because his story was a mix. A concoction of two distinct, yet similar stories. A priest with a dark past attempting to repay the sins of his dark past. He spread his infectious kindness everywhere he went, not afraid of bringing the light even in the most darkest of corners. I guessed only to get an answer and I was correct.
"Tell this dying man the truth, Prince. Why did you change our world? What did you see beyond the rift?"
I stood quiet. As if I had been hit by a ray of lightning or a bucket full of cold water. For I did not know. I thought I knew but the answer had been deliberately locked away again. And he realized this and took it as an answer.
"I see... Well, that's unfortunate." He coughed, his voice losing its grip. "I need you to help me with something, Prince."
"How are you still alive...?" I muttered to myself in awe, then told him, "I don't do wishes for a dead man." Then watched as his trembling hand reached into his breast pocket.
"Not a wish but an answer." Before he could extend his hand, he lost his life and plopped onto the ground. I huffed in amusement.
"For the plot." I sighed, taking the mysterious item which Sun handed to me.
It was a ring attached to a scroll. A rather old scroll.
"Father Liveren is dead!" A squeaky voice cried with more tuning in.
"That demon killed him!"
"KILL HIM!"
"Cut his horns and tie him to the tree of Sark!"
"You poor demon...." A rather raspy yet elegant voice spoke. Heels clanking against the pavement in a rhythm that followed my rushing heart. "You lived a very rough life..."
Peering over my shoulder, I meet eyes with a witch dressed from head to toe in a purple dress suit.
"I am willing to give you all the information that city locked you from only if you take my hand."
She screamed scammer. She screamed trickster. Even the crowd could sense the strong malice from the woman as they whispered,
"Isn't that the Crow Witch?"
"Oh he's definitely going to die."
"Why?" I asked the witch and she simply replied,
"I believe all are entitled to knowledge. Don't you agree?"
"What am I agreeing to exactly? No stranger gives and tells without naming a price." I wished I knew who she was to be able to determine her motives. But her origin was unknown to me.
"Let us discuss this somewhere else, so please do take my hand."
I felt no choice but to follow her order. I first took Sun's hand before taking the Witch's. Allowing her to raise her staff of black branches and chant a spell,
"Wings of Transportation."
And we were soon enveloped into a sea of silver feathers becoming louder and spinning around us faster until they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Here. As a commemoration of our alliance." The Witch suddenly peeped, handing me a book. "My name is Augusta, by the way."
I take the book with a raised brow.
"Mageology's Guide to Energy, Mana, and Aura. The differences and relationships between the pivotal forces of physics and magic." After done reading the introduction, Augusta then shot me a painfully awkward thumbs up.
As in, a thumbs up from out of the blue with a forced smile plastered onto her stiff face. As if she had never given anyone a smile or a thumbs up before. I could almost compare it to stretching out a porcelain doll until it snapped and shattered.
"How very thoughtful." I handed them to Sun, who then put it inside a space in his chest as if it were not something atypical, even though this was my first time seeing such an ability. Perhaps my missing coins were in there.
"Here's another. It's a gift you and your companion should read carefully." She said as she handed me a tiny book with what seemed to be over 400 pages. I did not see anything out of the ordinary until the moment I laid my hand on the cover. That's when everything in front of me became hazy. Like a dreamy filter of pale dimness had blanketed the world. And this feeling of fuzziness traveled throughout my body, even traveling through Sun who collapsed in the blink of an eye.
"What....is...this?" I mustered the strength to ask before falling to my knees. Augusta stood over me, suns behind her head like that one iconic mouse back in Earth.
"Hang tight, Dream maker." Augusta whispered as my vision became more heavy with fuzziness until I felt myself drift. As if I had been hit by a wave of sleepiness.