Descargar la aplicación

Capítulo 37: Compost

"Risus."

As I speak the name of the lesser god, I feel my surroundings disappear. But their warmth remains. Slowly opening my eyes, I glance beside me. The outlines of Elizabeth and Vol are here. With me.

"Seb... Where are we..?" I hear Vol ask.

Looking around, I find that I don't know, myself. This isn't the void that Not Gaia contacted me in, nor is it the farmland overlook where the smiling Risus brought me. We're somewhere else entirely.

It's dark, but the outline of the area is something like a scrapheap. The ground feels more like thick mud than metal, though. There were a lot of farms around, so maybe a compost heap, then? It's almost pitch black, though. Is it already night? Do they have night here? And why does the air feel so weird?

I try to get to my feet, having forgotten about my terrible, burnt state.

"Sebastian," Elizabeth says, catching me, "how are we here?"

"I need to see him - Risus - he must be around here."

Unless that wasn't his name and I messed something up? No, it must have been. It brought us up here, after all. So he must be here somewhere.

Something makes a weird squelching sound. Almost slithering.

"What is that??" Vol asks, his voice lowered.

"Vol, can we get some light," Elizabeth asks, still holding me up.

"Right."

I see Vol drawing thin lines in the air, constructing the spell in a few seconds.

"Luxnert."

In front of Vol, a small bubble of light appears, lighting up the-

The-

Oh.

All around us, long, thick vines move over and under one another, forming a shape something like a sphere. A quick glance tells me that the sphere isn't centered around us, since we're standing on the ground. It's centered on something just a bit outside of my view. Something above us. I look up.

I hear a sharp intake of breath from one of my friends, though I can't tell from whom. Apparently, they've seen him, too.

A man with a smiling mask is suspended in mid-air, held aloft by the many slimy vines curling around his body. His legs and arms all seem to be forcibly bent in all the wrong directions, every limb twitching and spasming as the thick vines curl around him.

Had he been a human, I would've thought him dead. A lifeless corpse. But this is a god we're talking about. A lesser god, true. But a god nevertheless.

I lift my arm to look at the manacaster, intending to cast a spell to free him.

But the manacaster isn't there.

On the wrist of my right arm, where the manacaster is supposed to be, is nothing more than a large, red scorch mark, seared into my skin.

"Vol, what did you do with the manacaster," I ask, restraining my irritation.

"I'm not sure how you managed it, but..."

When Vol hesitates, Elizabeth continues for him.

"You melted it. It was fused to your arm."

Something in my expression must have shown how I felt because Vol continued in a rush after her, as if to defend their actions.

"The engraved spells were mixed together. If something malfunctioned and the AM-store was activated, there was no telling what it might do."

"It was the safest option," Elizabeth finishes. They both look at me, hesitantly.

I can't help but wonder if they discussed how to handle this beforehand.

I would tell them that I was impressed if I wasn't holding myself back from yelling at them.

To think that I would lose my only weapon. Once again, I find myself defenseless. How reckless I've become. How weak. How pathetic.

I take a few deep breaths as my gaze locks onto the writhing figure of Risus. It hasn't even been a minute, but he's already looking much worse. I can see cracks starting to form along his mask. I wonder what it takes to kill a god.

"Vol. Any spells you can use to get him free?" I ask, my jaw clenched.

"Well, I *could* cast a spell, but maybe we should let Elizabeth try cutting them?" he says, looking to Elizabeth.

She nods and hands me over to Vol. She raises her sword and slashes at one of the fully stretched vines.

Nothing happens. No magic shields. No metal armor. No nothing. The blade just stops. Elizabeth hacks at it a few more times, but each time is as futile as the last.

I look over at Vol, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at the pointless suggestion.

"R-right, I'll just... cast a spell," he says, nervously.

"Good idea."

Vol thinks for a moment and then begins to move his hands around in front of him, forming the shapes for some sort of spell.

"Elizabeth, you can stop now," I tell her.

She does so.

"I know you're not happy about the manacaster, but there's no need for you to be rude, Sebastian," she replies.

That's...

"It was your fault, you know. If you hadn't attacked that monster or if you hadn't cast that spell, you would still have it."

I can feel my heart pounding in anger. Because. After all. She's right.

Never, in all my lives, have I made mistakes as severe as I have in this one. Not when I starved to death on the street. Not when I mistook my foe for a friend and was left for dead by the traitor. Not when I left Sofia behind.

No mistake is more fatal than getting overconfident. I proved that.

Now I'm here; burnt to a crisp, stuck in a cage of vines with my two best friends, and trying to save a god from being crushed to death by another god.

And how are we trying to solve this?? By slashing at vines and casting spells, which are bound to be futile. These are gods. Nothing Vol can cast will be strong enough to get Risus free. If only we could cast celestial magic. If only we could wield their weapons against them.

If-

Then, like a bolt of lightning, something clicks in my head.

An impossible idea.

Surely, there's no way.

But then again...

"Vol..." I mutter, almost to myself, "...do you have Elizabeth's old sword on you?"


next chapter

Capítulo 38: Celestial Pain

With a thin snap, one of the vines is cut in two. The half-melted blade of Elizabeth's former sword slices through it so easily, it's hard to believe.

When the sword had been melted by the second greater monster, it had stopped glowing by our touch. No longer able to transform mana into strength, we had thought it broken and worthless. I had tested it on a few goblins back then, just in case, but the sword couldn't even make a scratch in their skin.

I can't believe it took so long for me to put the pieces together. The only thing on Earth that can glow like that sword is a mana stone. But mana stones are notoriously difficult to work with, hence why they usually stay in a spherical shape.

In other words, that leaves one of two options:

1. There's some unknown technique discovered by some unknown person, who somehow had in-depth knowledge of celestial magic. They then created the most powerful weapon on the planet and promptly disappeared, never to be heard from again.

2. The sword isn't from Earth.

I don't know about you, but considering recent events, one of those sounds a lot more likely than the other.

After another few  snaps, the previously impossible-to-cut vines crumble, and the mangled body of Risus falls to the ground. The remaining vines glide away, wriggling back into the sphere around us, like snakes retreating to safety.

Elizabeth moves over to him, the celestial sword still in hand, and begins to cut away the last few vines. A sudden wriggle from one of the vines makes her hand slip and I see her accidentally nick the side of his hand.

"Be. Careful."

A small trickle of some blue liquid flows out of the tiny papercut-size wound. I swallow. Something about this power is weirdly - for lack of a better word - exciting. The power to wound a god. Is there a greater power in the universe?

Elizabeth removes the last vine from around Risus' neck with a careful cut.

"Is he alright?" I ask Elizabeth.

"I don't know," she replies, "he isn't breathing."

That's... not great.

The cracks have spread far across his mask, reaching all the way to his eyes. I wonder if he was dead by the time we got here or if we took too long to get him out.

"What now?" Vol asks, probably thinking out loud.

"Let's start by getting out of-" I start, but I'm suddenly interrupted as Elizabeth jumps back.

On the floor of vines, the previously unmoving body of Risus has begun making  cracking sounds as fingers snap back into place. His twisted neck rotates back towards the front in snapping steps, and his knees pop back into place from their splayed position.

Slowly, tentatively, as if unsure of his own movements, Risus pushes himself up; first onto one knee, then carefully up onto both legs.

"SnAWl."

His voice cracks as his neck makes the final push.

"Shawl," he exclaims, his broken mask grinning broadly at me.

"Lae'vie-crostro, it's so very good to see you again! I cannot possibly express my gratitude for this."

"It's fine. Elizabeth did all the cutting. Thank her."

His large flat disk of a head spins around in a graceful arc to face Elizabeth.

"You have my deepest thanks- Oh dear!" he suddenly exclaims, "but why have you brought the sword?!"

His head rotates down to glare at the melted sword, still held firmly in Elizabeth's hand.

He knows it?

"You know it???" Vol and Elizabeth ask in tandem.

Three of a kind, I guess. But he knows it??

"Yes," he says, "but you must go. The sword must not be here."

"Why not?" I ask.

"Later, Shawl. Please, you must go. Now. I will send you back. When you do, I pray that you will do me yet another favor."

"What is it?"

"You must leave the church. The Cyrene knows what you are trying to do. You must finish the spell, Shawl. Do not come back until you succeed. All you need is some different mana."

The dark sphere of vines seems to become even darker. I look out of the corner of my eye to check on Elizabeth, but she isn't there. Everything is fading away.

"Now. Go."

"Wh-"

Why does it feel like all I ever do with the gods is ask questions?

Fine. Time to review all that bullshit.

There's someone called Cyrene. Probably hostile. Maybe the one I know as "Not Gaia."

Risus knows the sword. It is important. Probably a celestial weapon or something. Don't bring it to the realm of the gods.

I need to finish the celestial spell. I need some "different mana." Maybe I need to separate my mana like I did in the past.

Jesus Christ.

Gods are a celestial pain.


Load failed, please RETRY

Regalos

Regalo -- Regalo recibido

    Estado de energía semanal

    Desbloqueo caps por lotes

    Tabla de contenidos

    Opciones de visualización

    Fondo

    Fuente

    Tamaño

    Gestión de comentarios de capítulos

    Escribe una reseña Estado de lectura: C37
    No se puede publicar. Por favor, inténtelo de nuevo
    • Calidad de escritura
    • Estabilidad de las actualizaciones
    • Desarrollo de la Historia
    • Diseño de Personajes
    • Antecedentes del mundo

    La puntuación total 0.0

    ¡Reseña publicada con éxito! Leer más reseñas
    Votar con Piedra de Poder
    Rank 200+ Clasificación PS
    Stone 0 Piedra de Poder
    Denunciar contenido inapropiado
    sugerencia de error

    Reportar abuso

    Comentarios de párrafo

    Iniciar sesión

    tip Comentario de párrafo

    ¡La función de comentarios de párrafo ya está en la Web! Mueva el mouse sobre cualquier párrafo y haga clic en el icono para agregar su comentario.

    Además, siempre puedes desactivarlo en Ajustes.

    ENTIENDO