Bab 88: Piercing Light, Swallowing Darkness

Ostensibly realizing the danger the tentacles represented, the mysterious youth shot into the air, narrowly evading them before spreading his hands and arms to produce multiple spheres of light.

"Begone, foul denizen of the shadows...!" shouted the youth, swinging his hands forward and directing the spheres of light to rain down as beams of light on the expanding mass of shadows. Muffled explosions reverberated through the air and ground, emanating from within the shadows like depth charges, but this only seemed to annoy Ohta as he reciprocated with tens of bright purple, laser-like beams of energy that shot out and changed trajectories abruptly to hit the youth's hastily erected barrier from multiple angles.

Clasping his hands together as if he were praying, the luminosity of the youth's hair, eyes, and various engravings intensified as he chanted, "By the Radiance of Celestial Light, I call forth the Judgment of the Heavens. Let the Purest Rays Pierce the Shadows, revealing truth and Vanquishing Darkness. Shine forth, Illuminate the Path of justice, and let all behold the Father's Righteous Verdict! Celestial Rebuke...!"

Near the end of his chant, the youth directed his hands forward, causing the Magic Circles rotating behind him to phase through his body, overlap, and expand to more than ten meters across with a hexagonal gate at their center. From within, a column of blindingly white light erupted, producing a bone-reverberating hum as it impacted the center of the shadowy mass in an instant.

'I still have a long way to go...' thought Will, bracing himself behind his cover and shielding his face and eyes with his right forearm. Glancing at his shadow, he noticed that it appeared to be emitting a dull light, similar to a monitor displaying a black image, but as there was little else he could do, he just...

'Wait...who decided that...?' Will asked himself, a smile playing across his lips as he abruptly emerged from behind his cover, kneeling with his bow fully drawn. The mysterious youth immediately noticed him, but since he had determined that Ohta was the greater threat, he only afforded him a fleeting glance before discharging an even greater volume of light.

'Hubris is so convenient...' thought Will, his smile growing and the depths of his hazel eyes emitting a faint, bluish-white hue as he took aim. At that moment, the world around him appeared to slow to a crawl, one notable exception being the rate at which the light poured out of the Magic Circle, which didn't seem to be affected.

"Fly true and fell my enemies..." stated Will, his voice piercing through the stagnant world and producing a ripple effect reminiscent of the shadows cast at the bottom of a pool. At the same time, he released his hold on the arrow's blackened fletching, allowing it to glide forward in slow motion, its shaft visibly warping around the structure of the bow and undulating as it traveled through the air, unaffected by the wind pressure produced by the column of light.

Having heard Will's words as if they were spoken directly into his ear, the youth's eyes gradually widened as he turned his head and looked over in similarly slow motion. At that exact moment, time appeared to accelerate to imperceptible speeds, Will's arrow leaving behind a brief, unbroken trail as it impacted the center of the circular engraving carved into the youth's forehead, causing his head to whip back and the column of light to cease its relentless assault.

'Fucking bullseye...!' Will exclaimed internally, grinning as he darted over to where the youth was falling with another arrow ready. Headshots dealt respectable damage but were rarely lethal against truly powerful foes, so he intended to return the favor from before and transform the mysterious youth into a pincushion.

Beating Will to the punch, Ohta's shadow moved to swallow the youth as he fell. As a result, Will was left staring at where they had disappeared, an annoyed frown marring his face as he observed the shadows recede to a single point before vanishing entirely.

'Well, I guess he deserves his revenge as well...' thought Will, inhaling a deep, steadying breath while tilting his head back with closed eyes. He generally tried to avoid killing, so once he decided to, it felt crappy to be deprived of the opportunity.

Shaking such sentiments from his mind, Will turned to where the two remaining members of the Crimson Fangs were staring at him with a mix of caution, trepidation, and frustration. They had just witnessed many of the people closest to them being killed, so rather than feeling relief, they felt indignant.

Fortunately, the boy with the diamond-shaped mark on his forehead said something to the girl before promptly ushering her away. In the process, he stared back at Will with a glimmer of vengeful resolution, but since the latter was accustomed to being targetted unfairly, he shook his head and allowed the duo to depart unaccosted.

'More importantly...' thought Will, looking around the area for any signs of his lance, Dazabagh. It didn't hold great sentimental value to him, but he felt obligated to keep and maintain it as it was a gift from his mother and a B-Rank Artifact.

"Looking for this...?" asked Ohta, appearing behind Will with Dazabagh in hand. Will turned to face him, but instead of focusing on the lance, his brows furrowed as he saw Ohta's condition. He wasn't missing any limbs, but he had second a few third-degree burns across his body, similar to a low-ranking Vampire that had inadvertantly stepped into the sun.

"Are you okay...?" asked Will, accepting the lance and unceremoniously tossing it in his Inventory. In response, Ohta adopted his usual half-lidded expression and asked, "Do I look okay?" with crossed arms.

"I'm sure you look better than that kid," Will contended, smiling as he proposed, "Should we find somewhere private where you can suck my blood...?"

Though he was tempted to retort that Will could go and suck himself, Ohta eventually nodded and responded, "Fine...but I'm still upset with you, so you better try something..."

"Isn't that the opposite of what people usually say...?" asked Will, raising his right brow.

"Just shut up and do what I say..." said Ohta, extending his right hand and averting his eyes with a pouty expression.

"Within reason..." responded Will, placing his hand in Ohta's, allowing him to transport them to a cave full of supplies, a bookshelf, and even a small bed. Will immediately guessed it was where Ohta had been staying before meeting Tim and Dori and, based on its scent and cleanliness, somewhere he frequented fairly often.

"Pull out a tub..." instructed Ohta, releasing Will's hand to ignite a nearby lamp. Both he and Will could see perfectly fine in the dark, but it felt more natural to have a light source.

While he didn't appreciate being told what to do, Will shook his head and pulled out a large wooden tub from his Inventory. He also began filling it with warm water, sparing Ohta the need to order him further as the petite Demon looked over before carefully peeling away his clothes. Some of the fabric had fused to his skin due to the intense heat he had been forced to endure, but Ohta clenched his teeth and peeled it away without hesitation or producing so much as a peep.

"You shouldn't be so rough with your body..." said Will, approaching and grabbing Ohta's left hand as he stated, "You helped me a lot back there. Let me return the favor..."

Punctuating his words, Will tentatively pressed his right index finger to a piece of fabric stuck in Ohta's bicep, causing a faint numbness to spread through the area before raising his finger a few seconds later, extracting it without pain or discomfort. Ohta snorted at this, but instead of telling Will to piss off or mind his own business, he remained completely silent as the latter methodically removed every scrap of burnt clothing and fabric from his body...

...

"So, what did you do with the angel...?" asked Will, sitting behind Ohta and brushing his hair after their shared bath. His limbs felt like lead after having a fair amount of his blood drawn, but it was difficult to determine he was on the verge of passing out from blood loss as he sported a faint smile and appeared poised and relaxed.

"I dragged him into the depths of my shadow until the pressure crushed his body into a sphere..." revealed Ohta, frowning at the recollection. The dark-skinned youth was weaker than the Saighba'an that claimed his arm, but the element of Light was a bad matchup for Demons. He wasn't nearly as vulnerable as some, but it still hurt like hell and had the same effect as pouring acid onto his flesh.

"Was that enough to kill him...?" asked Will, genuinely uncertain as beings formed from elemental energy were notoriously resilient. Thus, he wasn't even a little surprised when Ohta shrugged and confirmed, "Nah, he's still alive. I could have killed him if I really wanted, but I figured you'd want to question him or whatever."

"Mmm...I doubt he'll be willing to talk..." muttered Will, preempting Ohta's query by expressing, "My power isn't very effective on people and entities with powerful wills. We would first need to break him mentally, but even if that were possible, I refuse to use my power to dominate people's minds. That's a path there's no turning back from..."

"Didn't you put that one couple to sleep...?" asked Ohta, quickly tying up his hair into a spiky ponytail before turning on the stool he was seated on to face Will, asserting, "Good and evil are completely subjective. As long as you use it to help others, what does it matter if you dominate the minds of a few assholes?"

"It matters significantly," asserted Will, frowning as he expressed, "Free will isn't something that should be interfered with, regardless of whether the end justifies the means. It is an inviolable right, and anyone who can't respect that doesn't deserve it..."

"It was just a suggestion. No need to bite my freakin head off..." muttered Ohta, averting his eyes and snorting.

Exhaling from his nose, Will shook his head and asserted, "There are just some lines that shouldn't be crossed..." with an apologetic expression and tone. He wasn't going to say he was sorry, as he didn't feel he had said or done anything to warrant it, but he recognized that he could have spoken with a little less bite.

"Whatever..." muttered Ohta, rolling his eyes before meeting Will's gaze and asserting, "You should lay down and rest for a bit. I'm going to head back and check to make sure the Silver Cats didn't get themselves killed while we weren't looking..."

"Then I'll leave it to you..." responded Will, offering a curt nod and a smile. Immediately after that, Ohta sank into his shadow, presumably intending to pinch some clothes and change elsewhere as he had been completely naked. As for Will, he was beyond tired, compelling him to exhale a weary sigh before he got up, emptied the bath, and cleaned up a bit before lying down atop Ohta's makeshift bed. It pressed upon him that he could have done much more to alleviate Bhiran's situation, but he also knew it wasn't his responsibility to do so. There was a difference between believing you had a moral obligation to help others and sacrificing yourself. The people of Bhiran were not his own, so while he felt compelled to help them at the moment, he had no obligation to die for them...

'Speaking of death...' thought Will, opening his Inventory to inspect the Glacial Soul Core. According to its description, it was originally the heart of a Frost Drake. It was converted to a soul core by extracting the soul of a person marked for death by a Saighba'an and binding them via a special ritual known as Transpiritation. The result was a Saighba'an that was more Spirit than Curse, allowing it to learn, grow, and, most significantly, evolve based on the capabilities of the person it was contracted to...

...