Algernon Black

(Chapter 68) Once Upon Humans

"Beal!" Loy called out as the hoard started to swarm and circle the trio. "Get up." He ordered, his grip on his weapon tightening. "And fight you sniveling teenage brat."

Beal got to his shaky knees and came face to face with an armless man. Dark magic poured from his shoulder sockets where the exposed bones were charing black like coals in a fire. The devoid turned to the side and Beal had to use destruction magic to block the gush of magic it unloaded.

Loy finished the man attacking Beal by smashing in his head with the ball of his weapon. He crumpled to the floor, magic still escaping from the sockets of his shoulders as he died.

Beal only had a second to process the obscene horror of a bashed-in human skull when two more walked over its corpse. But these two had one side of each of them fused together to form one leg in the middle, with two spares and two arms. Beal flinched back upon seeing it.

"Keep it together." Loy scolded Beal, as he worked on his side of the small army. "Let your guard down and they'll kill you."

Beal snapped to his senses and got his shields up just as the conjoined pair shot light magic from the left hand and dark magic from the right. Their magic almost pushed him back but he held on and watched through his shields as the force from their attack slowly ripped them apart from each other. The skin that had grown together tore away leaving bones and innards exposed on the half of the body they shared. The two people fully split and fell to the ground with their guts spilling onto one another as they died.

Beal looked at their mangled form on the ground and almost lost his lunch.

Loy was still fighting off his own part of the hoard when he felt a sudden shift in the breeze.

"Beal behind you!" He yelled, seeing another devoid approach him from the side as Beal was too overwhelmed to move.

Loy shouldered Beal out of the way and because of it was hit full on in the stomach with a huge blast of dark magic. His heart constricted and the blood vessels surrounding it tightened but the prince couldn't take even a second to let his body heal as he had to kill the devoid for the useless child. 

After he did, he grabbed Beal by the scruff of his neck and forced him to his feet. "If you really want to destroy all the bad in this world!" Loy yelled at Beal, trying to make it stick in his juvenile mind. "Be strong enough to at least face it!" He threw Beal aside to safety as he turned to face off against the rest of the devoids.

Beal gawked at Loy's back as he fought the monsters like a hero in the stories. He imagined the impossible feat it would ever be to stand so tall and mighty against such atrocity and cursed his cowardness. Beal forced his way onto his knees, but still far from the full size of Loy, bit down on his tongue trying to make his locked legs move. Tears welled in his eyes as he fought against terror for control of his body but his blood went ice cold as he spotted a devoid make its way out of the forest behind Selice, who was too distracted with their fight to notice the monster stalking towards her.

Loy sensed the feeling of danger and turned to see a young woman right behind Selice. Destruction magic coiled on the numbs of her missing fingers stretched out to Selice's exposed back.

"Selice!" Loy yelled seeing he was too far away to help as the woman's hand reached out to her skin.

Selice turned around and was eye-level with a woman who stared blankly back even as half her arms fell to the ground. Selice looked to her side where Beal had sliced her hands clean through. She slumped to the ground, her veins emptying blood. Beal looked at his hands like he couldn't believe what he had done and back at the woman who was still alive as her entire body randomly convulsed. In his life so far. he had only used destruction magic on wood, or rocks, never flesh. And flesh had such a different consistency, one he was utterly appalled to have felt as he easily cut through her arms. The dying woman locked eyes with Beal, her irises shaking as she mouthed something along the lines of help.

Loy finished off the rest of the slow-moving devoids easily enough and then walked amongst the corpses, a stroll he had taken a few times before in his life, to make sure all of them were dead.

The convulsing woman was the last left alive and Loy approached her but didn't make the move to kill her.

"When you kill someone with destruction magic, make sure to go for the organs," Loy instructed Beal. "It's quicker that way."

Selice opened her mouth to ask Loy if he really expected Beal to do it, but the searing sound of destruction magic answered for her.

Beal placed his hand over her heart and felt the woman's fat, cartilage and bone eviscerate. Like he felt it on his palms for a split second before he destroyed a cold rock, he could feel every layer of her body as he destroyed it. But unlike a rock, a human body was warm and alive. Her eyes were still locked with Beal's as they drained of life but her face looked thankful as she died.

Loy stepped away from Beal, letting him come to terms with what he had just done.

Selice made to comfort Beal, but Loy pulled her away.

He knew what Beal was feeling, and for the boy's own sake he needed to make sure he never forgot it.

Beal stared at the corpse of the woman and back to his perfectly clean hands. He had attempted to kill Loy but never got close to hurting him. And for the first time in his life, Beal felt what it truly was like to use destruction magic on a person. It felt so inherently wrong to breach into a person's body. To turn it into dust and leave a huge gap in their chest. And it was a feeling he would never forget as the one thing destruction magic couldn't destroy was the knowledge he had killed someone and the sensation of eviscerating a human body.

"Now do you see why you need to learn all forms of magic?" Loy asked, more patient with the boy than usual. "It's not always about being strong and fast enough to kill the enemy right in front of you," He paused, looking over the corpses and the innocence that had died in Beal. "Sometimes you need to save yourself from the pain of watching someone die before your eyes."

Loy turned away expecting Beal to need a few hours to digest all of what just happened but stopped when he heard his name.

"Loy," Beal said, getting up to his shaky legs. He could barely stand but at least he was strong enough to kept the tears walled up in his eyes. "Teach me the other magics."

Loy stared back at him, with no traces of sympathy.

Beal remained steadfast. "Teach me." He repeated with an iron will in his voice. "So I can save people too."

Loy looked at the pure resolve in Beal's eyes and sighed. "Teenagers really are annoying."

Beal frowned, taking the insult as a refusal, but Loy looked at the dead boy of Beal's age only a couple of yards away. "Make sure you grow up, so I don't have to keep dealing with one."

Beal stared up at Loy hopeful as the prince mentally adjusted the trip's agenda to fit in a training routine and a few other things this attack prompted. "And don't complain when it gets hard or push yourself so much you become one of those devoids either. It's a pain to kill one that knows how to use destruction magic well."

"I will." Beal promised, but seeing by the look on Loy's face that it might be the wrong answer said, "I mean I won't!"

Loy analyzed the boy not yet ready to say he had made any strides towards improvement though at least he turned in the right direction.