Chapter 120

 

Dream State adversity with Doppel-chan in the arena…continued;

 

Injured…

I can’t believe it, I’m terribly injured.

Fox is carrying me as gently as she can and giving me a concerned look but my head feels like its splitting open or on a blazing fire from the way the pain receptors are firing off in my brain. I can’t even manage to cast a heal spell it’s so bad. I’m right now just trying so hard to not bite my tongue off from the sheer agony that’s making me sweat almost instantly. And I think the bones in my hand are ground up and crushed, so the pain is so mind blinding that I can’t even concentrate.

When I glanced at my hand I can see it’s like shredded hamburger all the way from my wrist down.

Oh crap.

“You’ll be OK, Shun. You’ll be OK. Hang in there,” Fox is saying. The panic in her voice has me sure that I won’t be OK.

“No, no, no, no, no…” I can hear Sunghee wailing in mental torment. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” she keeps saying it over and over. The pheromones are putting her and Fox into a panic to protect me, but I’m too incapacitated to study it out properly.

Yet we can still hear Doppel-chan hitting the walls of her own cage with such force that it’s like she’s creating dust in the air from nothing, and the cage is shaking violently. Yet somehow its walls seem to be holding while the cage is bobbing back and forth on the ceiling chain.

I can’t look at my arm again, because the mental agony will be even greater if I do. But if I don’t look at it, how am I going to treat it? And if the pain is this awful I won’t be able to pull off a healing spell.

“It’s going to be OK, Shun,” Fox said with a bewildered look on her face. “Please hang in there, please, please,” she cooed. I can tell she wants to hug me from like…some kind of motherly affection that is manifesting itself.

I’m biting my lip so hard and it’s like I feel foggy and I’m pretty sure I’m going into shock.

“Stay awake! You have to stay awake!” Fox kept saying over and over after that.

“Shun, don’t go to sleep. If you do, it’ll be bad,” Sunghee also is shaking my shoulder not realizing that makes it hurt more.

“Pain…” I managed to croak out while I’m being cradled by Fox.

“Hang in there! Dammit! This wasn’t supposed to happen! Crap! Son of a…,” Sunghee cried out. She’s bawling like crazy with tears running down her face. Fox is keeping a straight face, but the look in her eyes is very intense. She’s more shaken up than Sunghee if I measure how I see her eyes, but she’s trying to hold it in.

“Shun, listen you have to try to heal yourself as much as possible. This kind of injury with bone fragments will cause gangrene and terrible infection if it’s not treated right away. Concentrate Shun, you have to keep yourself locked on my voice and just concentrate on listening to me and staying calm,” Fox said.

“….I’ll try…” I managed to sob.

I kept hearing them say, “You can do it…” or other forms of encouragement every now and then while in my state of mind numbing pain fog.

Both of them are continuously trying to keep me awake with gentle shaking and prodding. Somehow Fox got hold of my canteen with Asakura’s milk and makes me drink it. I vaguely heard her and Sunghee discussing that some of its properties might give me a sugar rush similar to adrenaline. Fox does study the milk curiously though for a little while even after I’ve drank what I could.

I think there’s something calming about Asakura’s demon familiar milk. But it’s not a painkiller still.

Somehow I do manage to try to cast heal but it fizzles.

Then it fizzles again.

And again…a couple more tries also fizzle.

I can’t concentrate because it’s so bad. And that’s messing up the spell because my mind can’t block out the pain.

“You can do it Shun!” Sunghee reaffirms.

“Come on Shun. You have to pull through. I don’t have medical spell skills so I can’t do this for you. You have to keep trying,” Fox said.

They are both trying to keep me as comfortable as possible.

“…”

I try again but it fizzles. I almost had it that time but it failed when my hand bones twitched because of my movement hitting a nerve trigger. But I’ve never failed heal four times in a row even when I was new to this world, I think. It’s unbelievable to have this much trouble.

“Ahh, hey what’s that?” Sunghee asked pointing to one of my belt pouches. There’s a distinct glow that is like a sparkly blue and white that’s clearly magic in nature from within the pouch.

“Wh-what’s that?” she asked again.

“Wait, you’re right. There is something there,” Fox admitted.

I can barely move and I’m aware they are looking at something.. If I don’t move the pain is less than feeling like being skinned by razor blades, but with it its definitely the pain of like being skinned alive.

Do they mean the necklace I’d captured from the goblin shaman imp summoner?

“Hmm,” Fox is thinking something but doesn’t reveal it. The glow is getting brighter.

There’s suddenly an almost intangible voice that echoes in the air. It’s like a voice that has no sound but is felt strongly and distinctly. There’s something strange about it. I had a hard time telling what kind of creature it came from and even if it was male or female.

Then I realized it was some kind of telepathic voice. Fox’s ears are twitching a bit and standing on end. I can tell she’s especially wary.

Release us…

Release us and we’ll heal the young one…

Release us if you want to live…

“Did you…?” Sunghee is puzzled. She looks at Fox, who is also looking around wondering what’s going on.

“I did hear that. Guard him, don’t let them come close. I’m feeling…anger. A lot of intense anger that’s built up for a long time,” Fox said, with a bewildered look. She’s gripping her weapon suspiciously with one hand while still holding and cradling me. She then reaches out and cuts my pouch loose and lets it fall to the floor. Then she kicks it away.

Release us…

“If this is a trick it won’t work on us,” Fox challenged openly.

No trick, just fair exchange…

“What is that? Why is ti…they…whatever, angry?” Sunghee asked.

The glow is still increasing for a bit while the bag is rustling.

“I’m trying to feel that out. Wait there are two emotions. One is like deep seeded anger, and the other firm determination. I think the determination is greater than the anger so maybe we can reason with them,” Fox said.

“But who is them?” Sunghee questioned.

Release us…

“I’ll let you know when I know…but there’s a familiar smell about them,” Fox said.

“They’re demons aren’t they,” Sunghee’s grip tightened on her weapon and she’s in a stance like she’s ready to strike at any second with a lot of intensity and fierce beads of sweat on her forehead and face.

“Let me try to reason with them,” Fox said.

“Fine, but if they’re demons then they’ll die,” Sunghee said firmly.

They both notice it’s coming from the blue glow but it feels like the telepathic voice is coming from all around them. The blue glow as it approaches from the shadowed area around us seems to be getting more tangible and feel more real as it gets closer.

“Is…it…more goblin …shamans?” I croaked out in a feverish state. By now the sweat is pouring down my face like I’ve got the plague because the feeling of pain is so intense. I wouldn’t have the chance to stand up now, even if I had a bad confrontation.

“I won’t let them get you Shun. No matter what,” Sunghee said quickly.

“Hang in there Shun. We’ll protect you,” Fox said.

“Stay awake Shun!” Sunghee called out.

It was then that we noticed that the cage hanging above and near us had stopped shaking. We look over and also at the same time Doppel-chan is studying us with a determined and fixated obsessive look with her hands resting on the bars of the cage and the sides of her head. She’s strangely curious and fixated on us. But she’s afraid of whatever those lights are.

“I thought I felt some kind of extra mana flavor coming from you,” her metallic voice said while looking at me. She seems amused somehow. It’s spooky because she’s still got those evil looking eyes and her spirit isn’t beaten yet.

“Is…this some kind of trick that Doppel-chan did?” Sunghee asked.

“I don’t know,” Fox said.

“We have to consider it might be a trick of hers to get free,” Sunghee said.

“…help…” I pleaded.

Doppel-chan looks like she’s not trusting the lights though and strangely very still.

“Not my trick…but it’s not a bad idea for a feint of some kind,” Doppel-chan called back to us softly, as if she were bored.

I tried to get my heal spell off several more times and fizzled like six times. I’m also sure if I don’t repair the damage I’ll probably lose consciousness.

Then the bag suddenly opens and a bright light blue glowy orb is floating in the air around us. And the blue glowy orb came from out of the bag and is somehow spilling out of the necklace.

“Is that a will o wisp?” Sunghee asked Fox.

“It might be. I’m not sure…” came the response.

“…fair exchange…freedom for …fixing the fragile body…”

“But you know things? You know about magic? Aren’t will o wisps magic?” Sunghee was getting upset.

Fox shrugged, “There’s thousands of creatures like this in our world. I can’t know about every single one of them. If my mom had been here, she would know.”

Both of them still have their guard up.

“What do we do?” Sunghee asked.

“Simple, we defend Shun,” Fox replied.

Release us…we can heal the young one. But you must hurry. The young one is in shock.

The voice again is heard in our minds.

“How do we know you’ll keep your word and that you won’t intend harm?” Fox asked pointedly.

The light hovers in the air and then sort of spins and circles around. It wanted to also get closer and study me but Fox moves to block it’s advance.

We mean no harm, the voice said.

“Tell us who you are first,” Sunghee demanded. She also stands in front of me.

The girls have left me on the ground while they stand in front. From this view…I can almost see up Sunghee’s short skirt…if the circumstances were different…

Many years ago this land was once a great forest. The elves, centaurs, and fairies lived here in peace. Then came the Great Betrayal. The elves were lost to this land and the centaurs, fae, and fairies now live in fear trying to survive together in a symbiotic relationship. We are of those remnants, the voice said.

“So you’re an elf’s ghost? Is that what a will o wisp is?” Fox asked.

No, not ghost, not will o wisp, not elf.

“Are fae related to elves?” Sunghee wondered.

Fairy chained and captive…unchained from the land unlike the elves.

The goblin shaman nailed me to the broken staff of his mentor that he killed in his sleep. The dark energy and iron nails that bit into my arms and legs made me unable to escape or leave as they were cursed with his dark slave magic. I was trapped in and using slave crystals he was able to permanently keep me in the chains of near death sleep, never dying, but never being able to live or flee. Then you acquired me…

“I don’t remember Shun acquiring a fairy,” Fox said.

“I would remember something like that too,” Sunghee said.

The plain battered metal necklace? You don’t remember picking that up?

“Ahh, there was something like that. We were trying to find time to study it further,” Fox admitted.

I can’t talk. It hurts too much, and I’m trying to keep my energy and stay awake.

You couldn’t get around to it yet because there was a mind repel curse on the necklace to try to get any user or anyone holding the necklace to ‘forget’ about it and hide our identity. Though you saw a plain necklace the reality was a necklace with a small fairy nailed across the top. The goblin knew others wanted his secrets. He bound us with such terrible dark energy that our body was nearly broken. Then he wove a clever illusion around the necklace to make it look like something plain and ordinary…

“That makes sense. I’d wondered why we hadn’t gotten to that yet,” Sunghee sighed. “But is that also why he hasn’t investigated the goblin’s spellbook yet?” she looked at Fox.

“I think that’s just because the goblin spell book is dangerous and he doesn’t want to rush into whatever traps are still in it. There’s no need to rush things like that while he’s working up his shielding and energy resistance strength still,” Fox said carefully.

Then we can make a bargain? Set us free, yes? We will repair and heal the young mage with part of our life force, the voice encouraged. It sounded eager and almost like a teenage girl but it was no teenager we were sure.

“Not so fast. Show us your true form. We have to make sure you aren’t some demon,” Fox said guardedly.

A fair request. We also don’t like demons…yes, we can do this much. It’s a simple request.

The flickering light blue orb of energy hung in the air for a few seconds, and was followed by a few pulses. Then we saw a flickering image of the necklace again hanging in its place. It would stay in that image form for about two seconds, and then turn back for two seconds, and then repeat.

This is how we looked under the illusion…but this is our true form…

The image changed again, and it looked like a broken rod like cross about a foot long with a naked fairy with silver hair nailed to it, similar to a catholic crucifix but more squareish and with an X instead of a t shape. But the fairy itself looked like she was indeed in torment. She’d been beautiful once, but now her body was covered in scars and cuts, some of them still fresh, though she had a nice face. Did I say nice? I meant like damn…wow.

But all over her body the goblin shaman had been tormenting her daily for years it seemed. Her eyes were shut in some kind of semi-statis field I think that was there to mask the pain and her head and chin tied back so she couldn’t even budge an inch. Plus around the eyes it was like a dark and reddish taint of some kind was there, but not like any kind of makeup. There were also stumps sticking up just barely visible over her shoulders that looked to be where her wings had been clipped.

I had an unnatural desire to kill goblins suddenly.

Despite how beautiful she was with her small body, we all felt pity. She’d been abused for years.

“Hey look at that,” Sunghee exclaimed. She was fascinated and crawled forward wanting to touch it, but she pulled back afraid of what would happen if we did.

Suddenly we noticed the whole arena was covered with dozens of similar light blue orbs just like she’d used to manifest herself into. Somehow they’d all pulled themselves in here from the dark shadowy areas of the arena that were less lit. We couldn’t see any doors that they’d come through either.

Were they magic users?

These weren’t showing the beautiful fairy body, but instead they were using the glow to mask themselves in their aura to keep their appearances hidden. It was still obvious however that they were the same kind as she was, with the same glow and auras.

Do we have a deal?

The voice seemed to be coming from the first, most prominent glowy orb that was slightly bigger than the others. This one was the leader it seemed. The other voices also echoed right after that with the same request.

Creepy but effective; they were showing an extraordinary amount of unity, and earnestness.

“Seems like what at least 3 dozen of them if not more,” Sunghee whispered.

“Shun, this is your call. It’s your necklace?” Fox asked me, with an eyebrow raised.

“Do we…have your word that you will help heal my injury?” I asked.

“And no mind tricks or making us forget we met you or other tricky shit,” Fox added right after.

Uh oh…was there a reason she asked that?

Anxiety+1

 

 

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