Edited by: Kuro and Lille
After testing Emery’s demon seal for a week and successfully trapping three demons in some wooden statues, Grey felt it was finally time to end Nora’s suffering once and for all.
Seeing the success, Demon Jon decided to get rid of Nora and Grey, refusing to be sealed.
It tormented Nora in her sleep, followed her around the house, and taunted her. Even so, she, Emery, and Grey had a plan. She just needed to entertain Jon for a bit while Emery and Grey got everything ready.
Emery and Grey were in a nature reserve near the city. It was about 30 minutes away from their apartment and was frequently used as a camping ground for the city folk that wanted to escape the city life, but not wanting to go too far.
Nora was on her way, as she had to go to the agency for something. As the protagonist of this world, Grey knew that she would not die, but he still had System 225 checking in on her. In the meantime, Grey and Emery were drawing a sealing circle in a clearing in the forest.
This clearing was the one they had agreed on a week or so ago. They made sure that the demon wasn’t around them before scouting the place. It was perfect. It was isolated, but it was a 10-minute walk from the main trail, so it was difficult to get lost. They put tags on the trees to help guide them to and from.
Grey was the one who was drawing the sealing circle while Emery helped from above to make sure Grey was drawing it correctly. They made the seal using a special paint that Grey had continuously poured his spiritual energy into for a week. It was pure white and sparkled when the light shone on it. They also didn't draw on the dirt as the paint wouldn’t stick to the ground, so they took a black sheet that had bathed in direct sunlight that morning and laid it on the ground. They used three different paintbrushes to get the desired sealing circle on the sheet. The paint dried quickly so they couldn’t mess up or they would have to start over.
After 30 minutes, they finished the sealing circle and pinned it into the ground. They placed a 12-inch (30cm) wooden statue of what Jon looked like before his death. It was from the only picture that Nora had of her “father.” It also had carvings of the seal but it was in four different places. One on top of the head, the bottom platform where his feet were, on the front torso where his heart was, and on his back. The seals were placed there to ensure that he would not be able to leave the statue.
When everything was in place, Grey got a notification that Nora had almost gotten into a car accident.
*****
Nora was trying to get to the nature reserve outside of town. She was driving her car when she saw an oncoming car. It was driving on the wrong side of the road. The driver, who fell asleep at the wheel, had his foot on the gas, so it was crazily going down the road.
No one else could see it, but she could see Jon sitting in the passenger seat, grinning at her as the car threatened to come at her. She swerved her car to the right as quickly as she could. The incoming car skimmed the left side of her vehicle, sending her car in circles. Luckily, the right side was full of grass, so she didn’t go very far.
Unfortunately, the car crashed into the person behind her.
“If you let yourself get hit, you probably could have saved that other person’s life.” Demon Jon’s voice whispered into her ear as though trying to guilt-trip her into feeling bad. “The guy who fell asleep is still alive, but the other person did not survive the head-on collision.”
“It’s your fault he died. If you had died in his place, this innocent person would have survived. How will you live with this guilt for the rest of your life?”
“It’s not my fault!” She shouted and looked over at the passenger seat where he was sitting. “It’s your fault.”
It was the first time she had talked back to him. Knowing that she was finally going to get rid of this demon, she felt no fear. She had the power to get rid of him and it was all thanks to Emery.
“It’s your fault for wanting to get rid of me.”
Even when he was alive, he always liked to blame everyone around him. He never thought anything was his fault, even if he was proven wrong. He hated being wrong.
“If you just let me stay by your side and did as I told you, none of this would have happened. If only you were more obedient. Unlike your mother who defied me and even killed me! You are just like her. So useless!”
“Do you think I want to keep you around for the rest of my life? When I finally thought you were gone for good, you suddenly came back from the dead. No one wants you around, and I, especially, don’t want you around!”
Nora started up her car once more after calling 911 and left the scene. She was 5 minutes away from the nature reserve and ignored her “father” for the rest of the way. She was tired of hearing him talk, hearing him whisper words into her ears as though he was planting words in her mind.
“You are going to get rid of me at the nature reserve? You know I hate this place.” Jon said as he floated around her as she walked past the entrance.
She didn’t say anything to him, just walked to the agreed place.
“Do you think I would walk into your trap willingly? You can’t even touch me.”
She didn’t respond to him and acted as though he didn’t exist. This made him want to get into her face and taunt her even more!
“It seems one of you was smart enough to put little signs that showed the way. Look, I can’t even touch them because there is a seal on them. It must be that Emery kid who came up with the plan.”
Nora knew that the demon, Jon, could see Emery’s spirit. He had once asked who the person was in Emery’s body, but she didn’t say anything to him. It made Jon all the more curious though.
“Why won’t you answer me, Nora? I just want to talk to you. You are always ignoring me. Can’t you be a bit more obedient and answer me back?”
She knew that his words were all lies, so she let him talk her ear off.
After a while, she saw the clearing and Grey standing at the front. Emery was floating on top of the sealing circle to make sure it was all in place.
“Grey, Emery!” Nora waved to get their attention.
“Nora! It’s good to know that you made it safely.” Emery flew over and was going to give her a hug but he noticed Jon floating behind her.
“Oh, it’s you.” There were no emotions in his words.
“Hello, Emery boy. It seems you are still not in your body.”
“I didn’t think you would come here so easily,” Emery said as he floated back to Grey. "How anti-climatic. I thought we would have to drag you over here against your will."
“Well, it’s not like any of you can touch me,” Jon said as he flew around the sealing circle, “This looks pretty legit. How did you guys find this?”
“Didn’t find it, I made it,” Emery replied nonchalantly to get Jon’s guard to go down.
“Really? That’s pretty amazing. Does it work?” He knew they worked, he was just stalling for time. He knew it work, he just liked to hear himself talk.
“Yeah, it does. We tried it on three other demons already.”
“It really is the real deal, huh? They must’ve been pretty stupid to fall into this obnoxiously big seal.”
“Not stupid, just unprepared.”
“Unprepared?” Jon looked over at Emery, who was right next to him, extremely amused. “And how did you do that?”
“Like this,” Grey said and pushed Jon into the seal. Jon didn’t know how Grey got behind him without him noticing, but the biggest thing was that he actually felt Grey’s touch! It was the first time in years since he had been able to physically touch something.
Once Jon got inside the seal, that was it, he could not leave until someone broke the seal.
Jon was incredibly angry. His eyes turned pitch black and his hair began to defy gravity as it floated around with a mind of its own. A large amount of demonic energy surged from him as he attempted to break the seal.
“YoU TRiCked ME!” His voice was deep and hoarse as it echoed throughout the forest.
“Tricked you? No, we didn’t trick you. You were just unprepared.” Emery grinned but his smile never reached his eyes.
Nora and Grey had already started reading the chant as Emery taunted him a bit.
The two spoke at the same time. Chains began to shoot out of the seal on the cloth, slowly pulling him to the statue. He struggled and screeched but found that resistance was futile. Still, he didn’t want to give up because he didn’t want to be trapped in that statue.
“We call upon the gods in the heavens, the forces that control the spiritual energy of our world, and the spirits of the dead to help us seal the Demon, Jon, so that he can repent. The wicked roam this world, free to wreak havoc and torment those who are still alive.
“Seal him in this statue so that he can cleanse his soul, readying his soul for reincarnation.” They repeated this sentence three times before getting to the last part.
“He who struggles, he who fights, we tell you to embrace your wrongdoings.”
All four of Demon Jon’s limbs were chained and he felt his spiritual body being dragged. A seal formed on his chest and his forehead but he didn’t want this!
“Nora! I am your father, how could you do this to me?” He thought if he played the parent card, he could get Nora to stop. Hadn’t he watched over her even in death? After her mother left this world, he still stuck around to watch her grow up, so shouldn’t she be thankful?
“You want me to be thankful to you?” Nora was sick and tired of his gaslighting, manipulative ass. “The moment you laid your hands on my mother and those other women was the day I decided you were no longer my father!” Her red eyes looked over at Jon with fury. It was like she was laying all of her grievances in front of him so that he would shut up.
She continued to say the chant with Grey paying no mind to the demon who was shouting for her to stop.
“The Gods in the heavens, the forces that control the spiritual energy of our world, and the spirits of the dead, seal his soul in this statue, let him repent!”
After that, Jon screeched as loudly as he could. The grass and the nearby trees shook from his pressure. It took five minutes to seal him. Once he got sucked into the statue, they could no longer hear his pleas for help nor could they feel his pressure. The seal on the cloth disappeared but the ones on the statue glistened when light shone on it.
Nora collapsed to the ground trying to catch her breath. She used a lot of spiritual energy to help seal this demon, but she was also so relieved that her legs gave out.
She was finally free from him.
Grey was fine though, he felt like he could seal ten more demons and still feel energetic. Even so, he patted Nora’s back to give her some comfort. “You did well.”
[*Chirp chirp* Congratulations on completing:
[Main Mission: Seal Jon with Nora.
[Hidden Mission: Seal the Demon named Jon before Emery’s soul disappears.
[Thank you for all of your hard work, Host. You have one more side mission to complete. Good luck on your endeavors.]
‘Thank you, System 225.’ He always felt it was necessary to thank System 225 as they both worked hard to complete these missions.
Emery was standing next to them, wanting to comfort Nora but his hand slipped through her body.
Nora looked over at Emery, about to grab his hand but realized she could not, so her hand slowly moved back down. Still, tears flooded her eyes as she finally gathered enough energy. “Thank you, Emery, my best friend. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t know what I would do without you.”
“Nora… You don’t have to thank me, bitch.” He felt it was his last time to joke around with her like this. Still, he had to be sappy one last time. “You know I would do anything for you.”
When he said that, he saw the light behind Nora and Grey and was shocked to see it, coming for him and calling him in.
They could see he was staring behind them so they knew it was his time already.
“Emery, you better not forget me and you better wait for me.” Nora stood up so that he could look her in the eyes. “I won’t be joining you anytime soon because I have a calling in this world, but I better know that your smart ass is waiting for me there. I better see your ugly face the moment I die!”
“I could say the same to you. You better not forget me even when you find a good partner or if you ever have kids of your own. I better be the first one on your mind even in death.” Emery was crying because he knew that this was it. He wanted to go in the light but he didn’t want to leave his best friend behind. He had to go and he knew that.
Grey didn’t say much but he grabbed Emery’s hand and said, “Let’s hug one last time.”
Nora and Emery were brought into Grey’s warm hug. With Grey’s help, Nora and Emery were able to have physical contact so they cried, held each other for as long as they could, and finally let go when even Grey could no longer hold on to Emery.
“Goodbye Nora, I will see you on the other side when you get here, you dumb bitch!” In the end, they were best friends, so the love-filled curse words flowed out like there was no tomorrow.
“Also, Grey, thank you for everything. Live in my body for as long as you want, just don’t forget about me.”
And with that, Emery disappeared into the light, leaving only Nora and Grey in the forest.
Lille: Goodbye, Emery (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
Grandpa Marky: It was a bit anti-climatic but oh well. In the future, I will come back and fix this Arc ending up. Also, was supposed to update yesterday but the quiz I had to take took 2 hours of pure suffering, and then my arthritis in my hands began to act up. To make up for it, I will be updating one more time this week. Probably around the 24th! See y'all in the last chapter of this Arc! :D
