Chapter 3
Scream. Scream for your life. Scream if you can…
Allen felt as if a cold hand was touching his heart. He slowly opened his eyes… light fell around him.
“Finally awake?” A cheering voice reached his ears…
“Chris…?” Allen blinked and looked into the pale face in front of him… but that wasn’t Chris, and the voice was not deep enough… but it wasn’t Crane either… “Who… oh yeah, right… that was no nightmare…” The young man stated sarcastically into the face of a rather confused demon…
“Nightmare, huh? Guess you could call it that… I wouldn’t want to mess with that God of War that attacked your village yesterday… you are really lucky. Breakfast?” Zeyir offered the sleepy human something that looked like… raw flesh…
“Irks! What is that!?!” Allen hopped up from the ground and looked around. They were still in the forest, but by now miles away from the village…
“I hunted some creature… no clue what it is called though… I think it was… rabbit or something…” Zeyir shot a disgusted face at the small creature. “But somehow it tastes weird…”
“Of course it tastes weird! It is raw!” Allen gulped at the thought that the demon actually tried to eat it without cooking it… “Honestly… where are you from if you don’t even know rabbits!?” Allen sighed and took the dead animal from Zeyir’s hands… it looked as if it had been slashed with claws. Zeyir blushed a little and scratched the back of his head with his… well… claws… that explained a lot. “Honestly, boy…” Allen only shook his head and took a look around. There was nothing to make fire with… so raw really was the only solution… “I don’t guess you have firestones?”
“Firestones? Nope. Why?” Zeyir visibly felt uncomfortable about the situation…
“To make fire and cook this rabbit!” Allen snapped. How came this demon had no clue from ANYTHING!?! Or wait… he knew about Asgard… so maybe he was from… “Uhm… Are you from Utgard, Zeyir?” Allen moved his fingers over his goatee and shot a curious glare at a now nervous demon… that was answer enough for him. “I take this as a ‘Yes!’”
“Hm…” Zeyir nodded and looked on the ground.
“Guess I have to apology then… you probably don’t know rabbits.” Allen sighed. Who needed who’s help here?!
“I don’t have firestones, but I have a fire-blade if that helps you!” Flames formed around Zeyir’s hand. A golden light flashed through it. Out of the flames formed a crimson blade with golden marks. The hilt had a crimson crystal-ornament while the red parts of the blade sparkled like white stars.
“That… is amazing!!” Allen’s eyes started gleaming. He LOVED weapons! All kinds of them, but especially magical ones! He ripped the blade out of Zeyir’s hands and took a closer look at it. The riffled sheath was balanced perfectly with the base of the sword while the hilt had the exact same weight as the blade, making it out-balanced to no end. “Such a wonderful sword… this must have cost millions of Gar…” Allen spoke more to himself than to the demonic owner of the sword…
“Gar? Oh you mean your money on Midgard… No not really… it is an heirloom of my family.” Zeyir grinned, glad that the human seemed to feel better now and finally started open up to him. When they were escaping the previous night, he had refused even talking with him…
“Heirloom, huh?” Allen gave back the blade with an eager grin.
“The… rabbit?” Zeyir took his sword and looked at the still raw ‘breakfast’.
“Oh yeah, right… can you shot some fire at these branches?” Allen pointed on the ground. A few dead branches laid randomly on the ground. With his foot, Allen pushed some of the branches together on a little pile.
Zeyir took a look down on his blade before slashing it on the pile causing a giant jet of flame to appear.
After a while, the rabbit was finally done… Allen was used to cook in the forests. He had done this before when he wasn’t successful with hunting and wasn’t fast enough back at home again before the nightfall…
Allen sat on the ground, using his little daggers to get the meat off of the bones. Zeyir used his claws to get the meat… Allen was fascinated by the precision of the demon… he was damn good with his fingers! He would make an awesome hunter with a little practice!
“Now it tastes like I’m used to it…” Zeyir grinned and took another bite.
“Didn’t you ever go hunting back in Utgard? Or didn’t you ever cook something?” Allen couldn’t withstand chuckling.
“Not… really…” Zeyir blushed again and took another huge bite. Allen could feel that the man didn’t want to talk about it so he wouldn’t be the one to ask anymore… maybe he was a noble back in Utgard? That’d be an explanation… maybe he was a lord or an aristocrat, politician or whatever they had down there… “So, now that we are stuffed, can we move on? There might still be some angels around.” Zeyir threw away the bones and with a snap of his fingers the fire on the ground went out.
“Angels? I thought… well… we rested, didn’t we? Wasn’t that risky enough!?” Allen sweatdropped and hopped up, remembering the winged person from the last night. He could recall the brutality with which they had killed off his village… The cold feeling in Allen’s chest returned at the thought.
“You needed a break. It would have been harder to travel with you collapsing… I shielded us with some shadow-magic, so don’t worry.” Zeyir stretched himself a little before standing up and pointing towards south. “Twenty miles away there should be a little village with a silt-walker-station. At least that is what the map says… If we make it till there, we should be alright!” He grinned and started walking.
“Zeyir? Just… what would happen if we ran into… one of them?” Allen gulped at the thought… and followed the young demon.
“They will shoot light into the sky and alarm their master. Then we will have a damn problem.” Zeyir sighed and thought about the possibilities they had if they ran into a mob of angels… when Allen was asleep and the angels had no clue where they were, it was no problem to use a simple shadow-seal… but if it came to a confrontation and they had to walk to escape, this wouldn’t work anymore… Walking while using the shadow-seal was too energy-consuming as well! Zeyir shook his head. He didn’t want to think about the consequences… they just mustn’t walk into angels!
“Allen…?” Zeyir closed his eyes…
“What is it?” The human grew nervous at the worried tone in the demon’s voice.
“If we run into angels. Don’t move, okay?”
“Don’t move!? You must be kidding me! If they find us, running is the only option!!” Allen thought Zeyir had to be insane! He couldn’t be honest! But he didn’t sound as if he was joking…
“I know, you know me since yesterday and you would prefer trusting any other creature but me… but please trust me just this once, okay?” He turned to face his companion. “Utgard is rather… un-wealthy right now. We couldn’t stand a war against Asgard at the time being. But this would be the logical consequence if the Mana of Midgard is drown to its end! I have enough reason to protect you, no matter what… you don’t have a reason to trust me, but be aware that I have not a single reason to let these Asgardians get you!”
“…” Allen looked down on the ground. He liked Zeyir for some reason… he was a good person, Allen was sure of this… but he didn’t like the thought of running into angels and doing nothing but standing around. “Okay… I will try not to move. But… what is going to happen then?”
“We will see!” Zeyir grinned playful and fastened his pace.
Allen wasn’t really happy about the answer but he followed…
It had been a while since they talked with each other… they had walked a few miles already but it was still a while to go. The mood grew heavier and more nervous with every second.
“Zeyir?” Allen broke the silence finally.
“Hm?” The demon didn’t turn around. He just kept walking on, his keen ears always concentrating on the surroundings.
“Why does this happen? I mean… aren’t there other summoners that can summon the Great Spirits?”
“Not as far as I know… The witch that used to teach me about Midgard, told me about only one summoner left on Midgard! Nut as far as I know there are other spirits… smaller spirits! Elves are able to summon them, if I’m not mistaken…” Zeyir tried to remember one of his lessons when he was younger… ugh… how he hated the lessons back then… he had never paid attention…
Suddenly he heard something in the bushes… something huger than a rabbit! He turned around, only to see a pair of white wings. An angel shot a ball of white energy into the sky!
“NO!” Zeyir ran forward, stabbing the angel right into his heart with his claws. Allen could see how the hand of the demon passed through the chest, coming out on the other side of the chest again… The white fabric of the robe the angel was wearing turned read in a stream of blood… Zeyir was really precise… deadly precise… The demon formed a ball of dark energy and shot it on the dead body. It fell to ashes, leaving nothing but dust behind.
“What now!?” Allen started panicking… in a few seconds the God from before would be here… should they fight? Should they run? Should they… stay?
“Don’t move!” Zeyir barked and threw something towards Allen that formed out of his hand… it looked like a piece of paper – it landed right on his forehead. He could feel cold coming from the seal… It was like cold water running down his body. He knew this feeling… it felt like this when Zeyir had touched him the first time back in Ardon when he was still a mere shadow… Allen looked down on his hands. He was invisible! Like a walking shadow…
“The more you move the harder it is for me to keep it up!” Zeyir hissed, feeling every movement of the human… he took a look around… there was nowhere he could hide… He had to stay!
Allen did not understand why he did not use a seal on himself!? Did he intend to sacrifice himself just as the villagers were sacrifices for the sake of his life?
“I won’t die… don’t worry…” Zeyir whispered silently while listening to the surroundings. He could hear wings flapping above them… a mob of angels, but one pair of them was stronger… these wings weren’t as fragile as the other ones around them… they belonged to a God!
The black haired man with the crest on his forehead landed right in front of Zeyir, looking at the demon in surprise.
“I doubt that you are the person we are looking for!” The man’s cold voice gave Zeyir a chill… He knew this person in front of him way too well... every person in Utgard did…
“So… if that’s not Yarna…” Zeyir replied playfully. His chest felt as if it was going to burst. A ripping pain ran through his body. He could feel the three scars that were running down his chest hurting… they were a memorial of his last meet and greet with a God… But his mask of cheerfulness and glee was right in place.
“I know your mark on the forehead… you demons show off your heritage like it was a trophy… you must be a Grozen I guess?” Yarna grinned evily. “This must be my lucky day…”
“I wonder how you intend to explain this in front of the Holy Senate of Asgard then… You are not allowed to be here on Midgard.” Zeyir chuckled sheepishly.
“Same goes for you…” Yarna hissed angrily.
“Well… but I’m here as a visitor of this world. I don’t have half of my personal army with me. But it looks like my trap worked!” Zeyir’s face switched into an evil grimace.
“Trap?”
“You got it!” Zeyir laughed and moved his fingers through his silver-grey hair. “You won’t be able to find the van Tirith-clan-member anymore. He is in Embra by now, north of here, using a silt-walker. You won’t find him anymore…” He laughed successfully and leaned back on a tree. “And your angel-friend here…” He kicked into the dust on the ground with his foot. “He lured you all the way here!” Zeyir chuckled and turned towards Yarna… the God looked as if he was going to kill the demon every second. Allen stood there between two trees, afraid of moving the slightest, but he couldn’t believe what Zeyir was just saying… Embra was over 50 miles north of Ardon and the completely opposite direction than what they were headed! Zeyir was a genius! But they were still in danger… especially Zeyir… Allen didn’t quite get why Yarna wasn’t ‘allowed’ to kill Zeyir off right away… were there any rules between Asgard and Utgard he didn’t know about? And what was the Holy Senate?
“Tell me, boy… I guess you must be the son of this filthy old demon, Kyrin…”
“That’s Lord Kyrin to you!” Zeyir snapped and walked towards Yarna, showing him that he was not afraid at all! In fact… he was, but he did not dare showing it off a single second… He could never hide anything in front of his father, but when it came to others he could lie on them without getting red or hiding all kinds of emotions.
“Whatever… so you must be Zeyir then. Give me a single reason why I shouldn’t kill you right away? No one will find you, no one will question it if I say I wasn’t here on Midgard! So…”
“Because I would not give up without a fight… and believe me… I know you would kill me, but I a good enough to at least let some nice wounds running down your pretty holy face! Explain that to the Senate, Yarna!” Zeyir was shivering slightly for a few seconds before he regained control over himself. Yarna seemed to have not notice it... but Allen saw it…
“Hmpf!” Yarna turned around, looking at the forest. “Who tells me that the person we are looking for is not here with you?” An evil grin appeared on Yarna’s face as he randomly shot lightspears into the woods. Allen pressed his lips together to prevent himself from gasping… one of the lightspears had missed him only about a few inches!
“No one. But why if I was you… I would go back to Asgard now before I call for MY servants… if it comes out that you were here… the Senate will have a nice little chit-chat with you about it!” Zeyir felt how a weight was taken off of his shoulders as Yarna turned back towards him again, stopping his tried to find someone in the surroundings. “I just want to come out of here alive again. I don’t intend to make you troubles… as long as you don’t make me troubles!”
“We leave!” Yarna shouted. The angels next to him took off, flying towards the sky. Yarna stayed for a few more seconds. “You better watch out, Zeyir… you might be mighty in your world, but here you are worth nothing at all!” He took off. Zeyir watched the God slowly flapping with his wings, flying through the trees’ branches. Suddenly Yarna turned again, looking at Zeyir. “Oh, before I forget again… a little good-bye present!” A giant spear of light formed in Yarna’s hand. Zeyir had only time to gasp before everything around him turned white. A thrilling pain ran through his whole body and he could feel his legs giving in to his weight. Coughing, Zeyir laid on the ground, trying to focus all his remaining energy on Allen’s seal.
Yarna grinned at the sight of the pained demon and continued his way back to Asgard.
“Arg…” Zeyir gasped, not daring to lift off the seal… Allen couldn’t stand watching all of this anymore… he wanted to run towards Zeyir and help him, but if Yarna noticed him, everything would have been in vain!
A few moments passed before Zeyir snapped his fingers and the cold feeling around Allen disappeared as well as the seal on his head. The young summoner ran towards his savior trying to talk with him.
“Zeyir!? Hey! Stay with me!! Zeyir!!”
Zeyir couldn’t hear his companion’s words anymore… the world around him grew dim and grey… the light of the spear was too much for him to take… he was used to darkness… now his energy was all sucked out of him… He closed his eyes and fell unconscious…
