Third Person's Pov
"Young Lord, why has thy called thee?" The creature that the first ranker asked through the mind link of a familiar-contractor that they have established together as it stood on it's materialized body, it's large furry head turned towards Leirum, none other than it's owner and contractor.
It's soft white fur coat that seemed to have an iridescent glow was striped with black, resembling a white tiger and a lion combined together all over it's form as it looked below at the tied girl on the floor, the mighty beast's paws covered with bright blue flames.
"Young Lord. Why is that thy demonic energy is so strong yet so familiar? Has thy demon queen conquered thy lord's peer?" The creature asked curiously, walking in a circle around the tied up fourth ranker.
Indeed, he can feel the power of the demon queen and once, they had met in person during a war millenniums ago but thou hast' a different contractor at that time. He was the familiar of the King who had defeated the demon queen and claimed victory over her millenniums ago and he fought along side his king against the demon to rid the darkness of its queen.
Has the foolish demons succeeded in performing the sacrificial ritual? The beast thought as it's gaze wandered off to the demon queen.
"Arceus!" the demon queens deep growl of hate and despise rumbled and echoed in the valley but Leirum gave little notice while Arceus, the familiar of the first ranker and the guardian of the sky only continued to walk around the tied queen who began to struggle and fight against the entrapment that Leirum put her in but to no vain.
"Demon queen. Thoust is amusing. Seeing you in such despicable state after your years off terror millenniums ago in this world amuses thee." the champion of the gods said without opening it's mouth, the words directed to the queen passing through and she growled more in risen anger at the words.
"It seems that you have encountered her before." Leirum emotionlessly stated and Arceus nodded his big furry head in his direction as a confirmation.
"She's trying to possess my comrade's body and I as the first lord can't have that happening, how will I be able to get rid of this malevolent spirit from her body?" Leirum asked without any traces of doubt. It was as if the young lord was so sure that he can perform such task and that was one of the reasons that Arceus felt that it was only right for him to be owned by such mortal.
"The girl's already trapped! All of her powers and abilities are mine!" The demon queen harshly shouted with her voice and it literally shook the earth while Leirum blankly spared her a stare.
"Then I'll have to free her and get rid of you." He stated coldly while the demon queen started laughing loudly at his declaration as if mocking.
"Tis not possible. Her body is destined to be mine. All of these abilities inside her, locked away shall all be mine." She stated firmly in a tone so sure, the first ranker's forehead creasing and the guardian beast interestedly turning his attention at the trapped prey of his master.
Trapped abilities? The question went unanswered for both while the queen of the darkness remained laughing on and on with in obsessed craze in her.
"Arceus. How." The first ranker silently stated once again, not minding to take care of his wounds since he can't heal himself. The guardian beast nodded, walking to his contractor's side.
"Indeed, thee girl's trapped inside her own body with thy darkness choking her. Her soul to be precise is the one trapped in an abyss halfway to the spiritual world." The beast began, talking through the link between them as the wind rustled the bushes and leaves of trees.
Leirum gazed off into the distance, having already a gist of what was happening and what was needed to be done while he waited the confirmation of his thoughts from his own familiar.
"One needs to travel to the spirit word and back if thy wishes to save thy friend. Tis' not an easy task for it will strain thy physical body. It's either you come back with thy girl or not. Convincing her will be hard or even talking sense with thee will be worrisome since she'll be seeing nothing of you but deceit and illusions in the demon's entrapment." Arceus clarified and stared at his contractor whose face showed no emotions, giving the beast a hard time figuring what Leirum had running in his head.
"Then I will have to take the risk." Leirum soon declared after a few seconds of silence, the demon queen snapping her head in his direction and it only made the first ranker grit his teeth for seeing a comrade fall at the hands of a demon.
"Try it young one. Let us see." The demon queen provoked but Leirum was far too calm to bite. He chose not to speak and was about to sit down when he felt something wrong with the air, a crystal embedded in the round necklace hidden underneath his clothes glowing.
Without talking, he took it out and his eyes narrowed, lines drawing themselves on his forehead and his lips pursed into a thin line as the crystal that glowed that had a small initial of K written in blue flames suddenly turned dimmer. The skyblue color darkening, akin to the color of another crystal between a red crystal and a dirty white one.
What was the meaning of it? Was the twelfth ranker in danger?
The first ranker shut his eyes close as he silently sat down on the ground, his back leaning against a tree trunk and he set his sword in it's scabbard on his lap then he silently hid the necklace again.
The gems on the life necklace can never be wrong. But if it were true, he had no other choice but to hurry fast and return to the imperial palace. Both of the siblings, Kevin and Muriel had to be saved and it was upon him to do his duty.
He didn't have much time with the given circumstances. The two's life were in danger and if he doesn't move fast... Leirum shunned the thoughts from his mind as he gritted his teeth.
His eyes fluttered close and he shut his eyes while he took in a deep breath. Traveling to the spirit realm would strain his physical body and drain his energy but no other choice was left for him.
"Arceus. Do what you must. While I am not conscious, I leave my physical body and this girl's in your hands." Leirum told his familiar and it nodded low.
Without another word, Leirum then trapped himself from the world as he blocked the sounds and everything away. He trapped himself in a peaceful trance while he focused all of his concentration into falling asleep and entering a door in his mind. He cleared everything in his mind, and let the darkness take him away as he passed through the gates and his consciousness slowly slipped past his finger tips.
Arceus watched his contractor as it's aura calmed down, slightly flickering as if a flame engulfing it's body, all sorts of color present even the color of black in his aura and it made him wonder deeply why he had all of the colors when the greatest number of color that one should have could only be at least 12.
He on the other hand had hundreds of different colors and shades that it was hard to identify his being through the identification of his primary color. Such thing was supposed to be impossible but then... A lot of impossible things was made possible by a mere mortal.
The divine beast's eyes then traveled to the demon queen who was now quiet, probably preparing her inner battle with the first ranker for the prize of a mortal girl's sake.
The first lord wishes for the girl to return, the demon queen yearns for her to be trapped in her own body for her to truly earn the mortal girl's being.
Their war would be in the abyss. But never did the beast tell them that if the girl surrenders and does something unexpected for both...
Both shall loose the battle and the girl shall die or,one of the first ranker and the fourth will be vanquished forever to be trapped in the darkness. T'was for them then to figure out.
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Ryouta
"It's no use! He's not getting better!" Mikael frustratedly stated after the best healers were summoned for Kevin's current state. The twelfth ranker's life energy was slowly fading away and it scared them all.
No matter what they did, no matter how the healers tried and despite their efforts to see what was going on in Kevin, they couldn't grasp what was wrong.
His body was perfectly fine, exempting a few cuts and shallow wounds. Other than that, there was no serious damage on his physical body. If he had obtained a poison, the healers and Rex would have found out by then but there was nothing wrong.
His heart was beating so faintly but there was still a pulse. The hope that it gave earlier was slowly diminishing either way since we don't know what to do anymore.
What are we supposed to do to help when we don't know what's wrong with him in the first place?
Suddenly, without warning, Rex shouted something I didn't catch but I still rushed to where Kevin lay. He was suddenly thrashing around and hissing in pain for some reason we couldn't point out or determine the least.
"What's wrong with him?!" Cassiel shouted above all other noise when they came to see what it was on about again, pushing the kingdom's best healers out of the way to see for themselves. Kevin then gave a guttural but inhumane growl which surprised me and I literally jumped in my stand due to the sudden surprise while I looked back at Kevin.
He was muttering things under his breath that were inaudible, too fast and incorrigible under his breath but I could swear it wasn't the human language nor the language used here. Neither is it anything acient so we couldn't define what he was talking about but only Cyan was stood frozen like a rock as sweat profusely dotted Kevin's forehead and soaked his body.
"I don't know what the hell is wrong with him but help me hold him down or I'm afraid he may unintentionally and unconsciously hurt himself." Mikael stated through gritted teeth as he pinned down one of Kevin's thrashing arm.
No one argued and just followed what we did what was asked and I took hold of Kevin's other once free arm. He growled at the lack of movement and he tried to struggle and I was dead shocked at the strength of his little frame.
"What the hell? Help me here Violet!" I shouted in a panic and she immediately rushed to my side to aid me. Even the others looked like they were all having a hard time restraining the twelfth ranker.
Another growl came from Kevin and it took us all our sanity not to let go when we saw his eyes snapping open, revealing something we never expected to see.
We stood there frozen as if cold water was poured on all of us, the feeling of our body going numb along with the confusion while the room grew silent except for the sounds rumbling from Kevin's throat and we stared at a pair of golden orbs dotted with red,the whites around his iris bleeding black, his hair obtaining black streaks and fangs protruding from the corner of his lips.
"W-what..." The words failed to come out of us and we remained staring at the sudden atrocity of events and I felt a lump lodging itself in my throat.
"Damn it!" Rex cursed aloud, snapping us from our daze and we watched him as he ordered Alfreed to take his place in holding down Kevin by the left leg while he in return stood a few steps away from us with his eyes shut close and his lips formed into a thin line.
"Where are you going?" Violet asked but Rex refused to answer the particular question.
"Hold him down. I'll be back in a minute." Was all the second ranker said before vanishing in mid air from where he stood, leaving us no choice but continue on the restraint towards the twelfth ranked even if it took us a hard time doing so.
What was the meaning of this? K-Kevin's turning into a demon?! Wh-what the hell us going on?!
A minute later and we heard a small popping noise as Kevin appeared in thin air, a vial in his hand containing a red crimson liquid that seemed to be sparkling in the light like a liquefied crystal.
He strode over to us and pulled the stopper from the mouth of the vial, ordering another pair of guards to keep the twelfth ranker's head still while he lowered the vial and poured the substance in Kevin's mouth.
We waited for what was going to happen and a second later, Kevin stopped his struggling and his body sunk tiredly into the mattress. His breathing was tired and uneven while he shut his eyes close, the streaks of black and his fangs vanishing all together before he suddenly passed out and left us there panting due to our struggle with him.
What did Rex give him? Even King Decameron looked like he was just as curious while the second ranker tiredly sat down on Kevin's side and sighed deeply with his eyes closed while we stood there unmoving. And again and again, we hated it when we saw that Cyan seemed to know what it was. It was frustrating to even think of how many secrets Cyan, Rex and Leirum kept with themselves as not to tell us while we were in the dark and not knowing anything.
"I know you're all wondering to what might that be but I can not answer that nor can Cyan if you asked him. The important thing is we need to move fast. The potion only managed to slow down the spreading of the darkness. Kevin is still far from danger of being swallowed up by the darkness. We need to find out what caused this." Rex explained and we clenched our teeth at his words.
It was still far from over?! You've got to be kidding me! Damn! We're all damn tired, we didn't have the least blink of sleep and everything's going down hill, what more are waiting for us?! Sweet mother of Azeroth!
I internally cursed while the others worriedly glanced at Kevin. Even in his slumber, it seemed that he was fighting a battle internally for his pained expression told it all.
Damn. What a long day.
Third Person's Pov
The first ranker was now travelling from the surreal realm of the spirits back to his body. Half-way there, he knew that he'll meet the fourth ranker as he perceived to be lost.
Never had he felt so agitated before and he figured out that Arceus may have forgotten or possibly intended not to tell him something and it made him all the more uneasy.
While his soul drifted aimlessly, without warning, a darkness enveloped him and he felt cold. He could no longer see anything in the inky darkness but he let it envelope him in its darkness.
Without hesitating, the first ranker opened his mouth and shouted in the abyss of darkness.
"Muriel!!"
Muriel
I looked up, my eyes adjusting to the darkness when I heard a voice. A familiar voice whom I could never mistake among millions.
Standing in the darkness, I slowly urged my body to move forward, everything aching with every movement but I still kept on walking slowly while a small dot of hope flashed inside me. I couldn't help it.
Even if the voice belonged to the guy whose guts I hate most... I'm still hoping that he'll save me. But just as how the hope lit, it died almost instantly.
What if it was just an illusion? What if it was just all in my head and I just imagined someone calling out my name just because of desperation?
A tear escaped the corner of my left eye and I slumped down on the imaginary floor while I reached out and I brushed the tear from my cheeks, feeling my once smooth skin as nothing but rough...
My whole body had turned black for some reason and it was as rough as parched land with small cracks along.
I hugged my knees to my chest and buried my head there, all alone and cold in this bottomless pit. I already knew I was damned. Everything felt so surreal yet so real it was driving me crazy. I don't even know what to do anymore.
I hoped that it was all a dream yet I know too much to say it was real. I was trapped in my own body, in this darkness that swallowed me up after the demon queen owned my body as hers and locked me away.
"Muriel!"
My eyes snapped open for the second time around after I heard my name and I looked up, my heart stopping when I saw who had called my name. It was the same person who had always had the chance to see me in such pathetic states.
"L-Leirum." I stuttered as his name rolled off my tongue. I studied the enigmatic look on his handsome face. His lips were pressed in a thin line but above all of that I couldn't mistake the scowl on his face while he took in my pitiful state. Hell, I'm used to him scowling most of the time when we are both engaged in a heated argument while throwing insults at each other that's why I can never mistake that.
I stared as he walked closer to where I was pitifully curled up and hope filled me. I don't know how he found me or how he managed to come here but I was just thankful.
The corner of my lips curled up into a smile and I waited for him to near...however... My happiness and hope were both short-lived yet again when a voice rang in the darkness and we both froze.
"Muriel..."
My head turned behind me and I sat there gaping, the smile on my lips vanishing while I say there with my mouth parted in mixed emotions.
Fear... Confusion...
I stared at another guy which meant that I stood in between the two.
I looked back and saw the one I talked to earlier, gawking just the same and frozen in his stand. Fear clawed at my heart and I scrambled away at the two who were both staring at me with worry in their eyes but it didn't enlighten me at all.
"Stop." I managed to blurt out when they tried to both step forward and I was slightly glad that they did.
I didn't know who to believe and I don't know why I was in such a test but...
There were two Leirum's in front of me...
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Sorry for the wait. Yeah, second quarter exams are finished so I had time to write and update. Hope ya liked it.