Capítulo 26: Trust, time. Not enough.
Hours inside the cold, empty dungeon prove to be a waste of time, and this troubles Das even more than figuring out what was the scorched knight.
"Are you sure that this is something you have never seen?" He asks Ann, the two of them stand close to the dissected body of the monster laying on the table, the room has changed little since Das began inhabiting in his attempt to understand the creature.
"I'm certain. Necromancy can raise the dead and strengthen them, but this? This is beyond me" She passes her open hand over the creature, her eyes lightly burn with a blue fire and the orange flames within the corpse briefly turn blue as well, only to return to its original color as it moans and shakes "Impressive"
Das turns his attention from the creature and looks at Ann, the glow in her eyes, besides the obvious magical reason behind them, has a sense of respect, like a mentor filled with pride. The corner of her mouth slightly curved upwards.
"He has learned new tricks" Her eyes return to normal and she steps back from the table, turning to Das "He was always a quick learner so a part of me saw this coming, especially since he had managed to overpower me at the village. His understanding of necromancy must be better than mine to create such a unique servant"
"How is that possible? Aren't you two hundred years old?"
"Alright, I did invent this art but that doesn't mean it was my whole, un-life. I traveled a lot and did a bunch of things in my free time, necromancy was not the only thing I was thinking about" Her easygoingness visibly annoys Das, so she quickly raises her hands in defense" Have YOU ever tried doing the same thing every single day of your life without getting tired?"
"I thought this was your passion or something along those lines, how did you even get to make a new art if you didn't spend every single day working on it?"
"Luck I guess"
Her grin from ear to ear causes Das to confuse the woman with his life-long fairy companion, this only worsens his mood. He approaches the table and rests his hands on its edge, locking eyes with the scorched, dissected knight.
"Try it one more time, it's all we've got for now"
"It's useless Das, I can't replace his presence within it" She stands next to Das, looking at the corpse shaking on the table.
"Why don't you try it?" He frowns and slowly looks at her, but before he responds she raises a hand "It won't turn you into an undead, neither will it be physically harmful to you in any way. You still can do magic, so utilizing a little bit of help from your mana you may be able to pierce through the anima with more efficiency than I"
Das looks back at the corpse and seems to give in, he takes a step back and imitates the stance Ann had a few moments ago. His open hand is right above the corpse.
"Remember, this is an exchange. So you take the anime of the phantom and in turn fill the space with yours" Ann stands behind Das, her hand on his back "If anything seems out of the ordinary I should be able to suck the anima from you with ease, so don't worry"
He closes his eyes and focuses, but the cautious words of Drachen ring in his ears.
This could be a trap and now he is vulnerable, he had been careful with her until then, always standing behind her and ready to attack but now it was her who stood behind him, a hand on his back that could easily return the gesture of his back when they first meet at the village.
But, she never showed hostility or any reason to doubt her. If anything, she seems rather calm and even goofy, not what you would expect from someone aiming to hurt you.
"Should I trust her?" Was the question he asked himself.
"Ready?" She asks.
Maybe he is still not sure of her, but what is certain is that the less he knows of the phantom the more likely it is that another Eversmile may happen.
"Ready" He replies.
In the beginning, he feels nothing, but gradually, he feels from the tip of his fingers an ever-growing cold that makes its way through his arm. It is completely different from the sensation of utilizing mana.
The cold sucks out his energy the more it runs through his veins, his heartbeat quickens as this, unnatural sensation washes over his entire body, proving too much and forcing him to stop before the cold goes higher than his elbow.
Das shakes and lets out the air he had been holding in without realizing it.
"Calm down, Das, what happened?" Ann holds him, worried he may fall at any moment.
"I can't, it doesn't feel right at all"
"Necromancy is unlike anything you have ever experienced before so of course it may be a little bit intimidating at first, but if you want to defeat the phantom, you have to trust me"
"You say that but how can I trust you when I barely know you? Or when you are not even sure of how advanced is he now in this art?"
Ann takes a moment to consider her words carefully, Das can't tell if she is just gathering her thoughts or what he said hurt her in any way, but soon she leans close and looks directly to his eyes.
"I may not be what you want, but I'm all you've got. Trust can be earned and experience gathered through time, do you have that time?"
Her gaze hits deep inside Das. He doesn't have the time to look for a perfect mentor nor to let her earn his trust, all he has is her and the threat of the phantom looming over his head.
Taking a deep breath he gently pushes her away and thinks to himself"Only this once, I can get a feeling of how necromancy works" He returns to his place and raises his arm forward "I have to try, I must take the risk" His hand opens and his eyes close once more "I can't fail again"
The cold begins to spread from his fingertips and every muscle in his body tenses, he grits his teeth fighting against the almost instinctive reaction to stop what he is doing. Every part of his being rejects taking part in such an unnatural and unholy act but his heart gives him the strength to push ahead and persevere.
Meanwhile, Ann looks over Das's shoulder, her smile filled with hidden excitement but clear satisfaction. Her eyes focused on the red mana that slowly spread along his right arm, tiny sparks of blue appearing from time to time within them ever more numerous the further the red mana traveled.
Soon it had reached his shoulder and the moment it did, like a chain reaction, the many snake-like red fires on his arm turned blue just how Ann's mana looked like, her jaw dropped and she leaned closer to look at Das's face.
It was twisted as if in pain, his closed eyes began to burn with both red and blue mana, the two forces fighting for dominance and leaking tiny bits of their essence through his eyes.
Das had a sea of sensations invade every sense in his body. His ears ringing, his body felt cold, like being left naked on a freezing blizzard, he smelled the stench of burnt meat once again and, his eyes were forced open for he immediately recognized that smell.
He would never be able to forget it.
No longer was he inside the cold and damp dungeon, he was back at Eversmile, the buildings burned rapidly and without restrain, to his left the large pile of burning corpses.
Was this a memory?
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Das yelled in frustration, his voice making an echo that gave the impression more than one person was talking "CHARGE!!" He ordered as he pointed his staff at...Das.
Yes, this was a memory, but not his own.
He looked ahead and saw himself standing far away at the other side of the plaza, raising his staff as the red mana took over his body.
Then, the world itself seemed to shatter into one thousand pieces as unbearable pain pierced his head forcing a scream to escape his mouth.
Both Das and the scorched knight opened their eyes bursting with blue fire as both screamed in agony and the red mana began to raise from the body of the knight like smoke and consumed by Das.
Ann snapped into action hit him on the back with her open palm, her eyes turning blue as well, the red mana began to get sucked out of Das's back and into her palm.
But as soon as it did her eyes turned red and she was no longer in the dungeon, instead, she stood in the bathroom of the tower, or rather, Das did. She looks around, confused about what is happening, she is not inside Das's body, she floats in front of him and sees something she shouldn't have.
However, contrary to Das, she is a necromancer, so once she understands what is going on she manages to force herself out of the memory and cuts the connection between Das and the knight.
The young archmage returns to normal and falls limp on Ann's arms who catches his fall from behind. She manages to hold him for a second until her weakened knees give in and she sits on the floor, the experience having drained some of her strength as well.
Das has fallen unconscious and the knight seems to have returned to normal. Having confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary, Ann lets herself be at ease.
"Well, that was new" She whispers and looks at the young archmage resting unconscious in her arms, she gently moves his hair from his face "Sorry"
She remains in that position for the moment, losing herself in her thoughts, many things new and old need this time to be analyzed.
Slowly, Das opens his eyes.
The first thing he sees is the stone roof of the dungeon and this is enough to lit his mind back to usual, he sits straight and sees he had been resting on the floor, Ann's cloak acting as his pillow.
"How do you feel?" She asks, sitting in a nearby chair next to Das.
"You said it wouldn't harm me!" Das shouts pointing at the knight without looking away from Ann "I felt like my head was going to split in half!"
"I'm sorry! I had no idea you would mix your mind with whatever is left of this man's spirit!" She stands up from the chair, placing both hands on her hips.
"But-" He realizes something before he continues shouting, his anger turns into a cold, threatening calmness that immediately makes Ann tense up "Did you saw his too?" Das look at her like if he was about to strike a killing blow to a hated enemy "Did you saw mine?"
Ann looks away and walks up to the knight.
"I saw only fire, and I'm truly sorry, Das" She turns around and meets Das's piercing gaze with a guilty one of her own "If I had known something like this could happen, I wouldn't have let you do it"
Das's initial animosity calms down and he squeezes his eyes with one hand before walking up next to Ann and resting his hand on the table, he remains silent for a few seconds before looking at her again, this time with the same neutrality he usually has.
"It doesn't matter, do you know what went wrong?"
"I have thought about it and I think I have the answer" She points at the knight and both focus on him " He must have known or supposed letting me alive would eventually lead me to you, so while usually necromancy requires taking control of something dead, he must have killed this man and raised the body only to later return a part of his soul to it"
"What does that mean to me?"
"It means two things. First, that to take control of this knight you will have to fight against his own will" She glances at Das, concern in her eyes "And the second, it means you will have to use a spell to dig inside his mind...this is not corpse Das, he is not being controlled. He has been fully aware of everything since the very beginning"
"That means..."Das locks eyes once again with the scorched knight, who for the first time, smiles at him.
"He has been following the orders of the phantom not because he has to...he wants to"
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
PenguinSam64
PenguinSam64 Hello there! I hope you are all enjoying the story thus far, I have dealt with my problems so expect an increase in quality and hopefully, soon an increase in the number of chapters I upload every day.
Have a great day!
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