Vytal tossed Korrozak into his cell with anger. Korrozak coughed and lifted himself shakily on an arm. Vytal scoffed at him in disgust and walked back through the door. Korrozak was covered in long cuts, bruises and burns. His left arm was broken and his first wing severely torn. On top of that, his injuries from his fight with Robin had never fully healed. It had been a month since Vytal chained him up in the big cylindrical room and the only words he spoke were all insults to his 'Master'. Vytal eventually gave up and locked him back in his cell. Korrozak sat up and leaned against the wall of his cell and lifted his left hand. It shook tremendously from that one simple effort. A black magic circle appeared and his subspace opened up. He reached inside and grabbed ointments and bandages. He patched himself up, put his things away and crawled over to the straw to rest. When he woke up again, he was feeling replenished on magic so he created a nail, string and a wooden board. He took the nail and poked two holes in the wooden board before he cast a small fire spell to melt the pointy part of the nail to one of the iron bars on the outside of his cage. He then scratched a message onto the wooden board, tied the string to it, hung the new sign on the nail and sat down to rest. Just as he was starting to get hungry, he heard the door open and Keshay walked over with a plate of three apples. He spotted the sign on Korrozak's cage and started giggling. He handed all the apples to the boy then turned and leaned against the bars of Korrozak's cage.
"So you're a 'damaged' slave now?" he smiled with amusement. "'Slave is damaged and has yet to recover. Please refrain from usage of said Slave until they have finished repairing themselves.'" he read off the sign.
"Well I'm injured and can't really work." he stated.
"You make it sound like you're a robot!"
"That's what a slave is. A humanoid robot that you don't have to build, is semi easy to obtain, requires constant feeding to function and can break down from extensive forced work or abuse."
"That's such a dark way of putting things." Keshay stated. Korrozak shrugged before pulling an apple from his subspace and duplicating it before munching on it. Keshay paused for a moment before turning to walk back out the door. He had just opened it when Korrozak threw his apple core in front of him.
"A piece of advice." Korrozak started before munching on the other apple. "You know the DMA has put a price on my head, right?" Keshay turned towards him.
"We aren't planning on selling you to the DMA for a while, if you're worried."
"Not in the slightest. One of their maniacal agents has been hired to make my life a living hell before my capture, and most probable sentence to death, by someone I may or may not know, so the longer I stay here the greater the risk for everyone is. He's a crazy person who would blow up a whole city to find me so it's in your best interest to pass me on to someone else before catastrophe strikes. Honestly I'm surprised you guys have managed to hide me for so long when that guy hunts me like a hawk."
"I'll tell the others to keep that in mind." Keshay assured, heading towards the door again. Just before he left, an apple core bounced off the back of his head and he heard Korrozak snickering behind him. Keshay sighed before leaving. Korrozak pulled an orange out of his subspace and started peeling as he sorted through his thoughts.
"U-um. How can you tease the Masters like you are right now? You'll get punished if you keep it up." Korrozak turned to see the boy staring back at him, his golden eyes shining with worry.
"It's fun." he replied simply.
"B-but! You get punished!"
"I've been tortured ever since I got here. I doubt there's anything worse than that. Besides, if I gave into those punks, my spirit would be more hurt than my body is. There are a lot of things I still want to see and try. I want to explore and soar through the skies as free as a bird. If I gave up, my old man would scold me when I see him again." Korrozak closed his eyes and sighed. "If only he was still here, I wouldn't have to wait until I passed on to play games with him again."
"Passed on?" the boy echoed.
"When I die." Korrozak said flatly. "What's your name, by the way?"
"I gave up on my name."
"So you forgot?"
"No, it's just... meaningless now." Korrozak paused.
"No name is meaningless. We are all given a name for a reason. Our names represent who we are. To throw away your name is to give up on yourself."
"I have given up."
"Well I won't give up."
"You have made that very clear."
"No, I meant I won't give up on you." The boy stared at Korrozak. "Because I don't want to give up on people. Sure, many people have done bad things to me, but many people have also brought me joy and happiness. If I gave up on others I would be giving up on those who have been kind to me as well." Korrozak looked up at the ceiling. Silence.
"Nura. My name's Nura." the boy said after a while. Korrozak looked at him.
"Nura... such a good name." Korrozak whispered. "It means 'light' right? Isn't it a girl's name?" he asked.
"Maybe." Nura turned away, embarrassed.
"Say, Nura. Do you want to escape with me?" Nura turned back to Korrozak.
"I should ask your name first." Nura asked.
"Oh, yeah! It's Korrozak." Korrozak hesitated. "So, yes escape tonight or no escape tonight?"
"So soon?"
"Why not? These chains are pretty feeble, the iron bars are very meltable and I doubt any of them think I can do anything at the moment."
"I don't think you can do anything either." Nura mumbled.
"What kind of demon would I be if I couldn't use some kind of healing magic?" Korrozak smiled. Nura just stared at him. "I mean seriously, I get injured so often, you have no idea."
"I kind of have an idea." Korrozak stood up and held his hand up to his broken arm. A green magic circle appeared and his injuries started healing. The burns and bruises slowly faded and the cuts slowly closed without a trace or scar to be seen. It took a while to get all of his injuries healed and he was starting to get tired from how much magic he had used. He walked over to the iron bars and was about to cast a fire spell when an explosion sounded above them and the ground quaked. Korrozak froze and listened.
"Nura, can you use attack magic?" Korrozak asked quickly.
"Yeah, why?"
"Use it on the cage, now!"
"What's the rush? Don't we have time?"
"Not anymore. The DMA guys are here now and we have to leave." Korrozak prepared a simple attack spell. He held out his hand towards the iron bars and magic circles appeared right in front of him. A short burst of magical energy exploded from the magic circles, destroying the bars in front of him. Nura did the same on his end.
"Nura, what is the most advanced spell you can use?"
"The Spherical Guard spell."
"Come here then." Nura walked over to Korrozak and he warped his second pair of wings around Nura. He tried to create a Teleportation Magic circle underneath him but it shattered the moment before activation. Crap! I've used up too much magic healing myself. Four black figures appeared in the door window and started banging on the door. Korrozak pushed Nura behind him and whispered, "Don't say a word to the agents. If they find you, they'll definitely kill you on the spot. I know this might be out of your skill set but try to cast the Invisible Spell and escape. After all this let's meet up at Iron Harbor."
"What about you?" Nura whispered.
"I've evaded these guys this long, haven't I? I'm not about to just give that up." he assured. Just then, the door burst apart and the DMA agents filed into the room.
"What do we have here?" Robin sang in a merry tone. "If it isn't Mr. Korrozak the Demon. Long time no see I suppose. My, my! You look terrible."
"It's been a month. What took you so long?" Korrozak nervously smiled. He started shaking. He hadn't fully recovered from his wounds yet.
"You disappeared after the TimberFord incident and we couldn't track you after you escaped. We were informed of a little demon boy being held here, so we came to check it out as a break from hunting you, but who knew that 'little demon boy' was you?" he grinned and looked around. "So, where'd the other one go?" Korrozak stiffened.
"It's just me."
"How'd that cage get so busted then?"
"I was just about to break out when you m'jumbo's popped out of nowhere. I guess I had a little trouble controlling my magic levels and the force of my blast cut through two cages instead of just mine." Korrozak lied. Behind him, Nura was having trouble casting the Invisible Spell. Robin walked over towards Korrozak, who didn't move. He then grabbed Korrozak's top left wing and extended it.
"How'd you cast spells when your wings are in this condition? How did your wings get in this condition in the first place? And how did you cast magic with magic-sealing clamps on?" Robin observed.
"Magic-sealing? These clamps are supposed to seal magic?" Korrozak gasped. "So that's why my magic felt significantly weaker than normal."
"Magic-sealing items are put on demons to prevent them from using magic power to a certain degree. These are high level magic-sealing clamps so for you to be able to freely cast low level spells you must have at least three wings worth of magic power hidden within you." Robin explained. Robin turned his stern gaze towards Korrozak. "You were holding back? Why'd you let me take your wing then?"
"If I had the magic power to keep my wing I would have. Losing a wing is painful." Robin started laughing creepily.
"So you have all this hidden potential, but can't use it? How interesting. How very very interesting indeed." he giggled. Robin suddenly grabbed the brace around his neck. He threw him aside, revealing Nura, who was still shaking behind him. "It seems you made a little friend during your time here, eh?" he exclaimed manically. He grabbed Nura by the neck and lifted him up.
"Nura!" Korrozak shot up instantly but the three other people in suits sprang on top of him, holding him face flat against the ground. Nura wheezed. Tears began to form in his eyes as he struggled to breath. He reached out a desperate hand towards Korrozak.
"H... He... lp..."
"Nura!" Korrozak cried. Robin tightened his grip and smiled maliciously at Korrozak. "Let him go! I'll do anything, you name it! Just let him go." he pleaded.
"Anything?" Robin echoed slowly with interest.
"Almost… anything." Robin smiled with satisfaction and dropped Nura, who fell to the floor gasping for air.
"Then you will answer all of my questions honestly and to the best of your abilities. Unless you want the boy to die." Robin confirmed, turning towards Korrozak.
"Sure. Let me at 'em."
"So tell me, what is your name?" Robin crouched down in front of Korrozak.
"It's Korrozak. Korrozak Zastaroth." he answered hesitantly.
"Zastaroth? That's not any family name I've ever heard of and definitely not any Great family name." Robin pondered. Korrozak sighed with relief. "But... Why is it only your left eye that turns red? Only Red Demon's have red eyes."
"Maybe my father was a Red Demon and I just didn't know." Korrozak suggested.
"Although, it was confirmed that he was of no Great family origin when we examined him." Robin closed his eyes, trying to collect his thoughts. "Since your last name doesn't match with a Great family, we will capture you for now but you are still under speculation of being a Red Demon so don't get your hopes up too high. I guess we should go now. Oh, but first..." he trailed off. In a flash, he threw a knife straight at Nura, piercing his chest.
"NURA!!" A massive shockwave of magical energy burst from Korrozak, knocking everyone away from him. In an instant, Korrozak was standing by Nura, holding him in his arms. On his back appeared a beautiful third pair of wings.