De'Vas Chronicles Book 4: Chapter 32

Kaito’s club slammed into the tiger made of Lightning Magic as it charged him, the blow dissipating the creature into bolts of lightning that raced back to the human’s corpse. He left the club embedded in the ground and reached for the relic on his belt.

He lifted his flask and pushed some of his magic into the rune on it. The mixture of healing potion with blood filled his mouth as he took a drink. The rune heightened the healing effects of the potion, more so when it was joined with the flesh digesting in his stomach. The wounds from his fight were rapidly healing.

The Flask of the Starved King was both a vile and a powerful relic. An item made for the chaos and death on the battlefield. As long as there were corpses to eat, any wound could be healed, and one’s power could be enhanced. A relic Hitomi had sent him to find for her coming war against the human governments.

As he lowered it, he saw his hand was shaking.

I would have died in that fight if not for this relic.

He shook his head as he recalled the spell the human had fired at him. A second slower at raising his arm and he would have been lying dead on the ground.

“Another monster like Hitomi,” he said to himself.

Very few truly knew what the fox was capable of. Most that did were those who were there the day she killed two of the founders of De’Vas.

Kaito had caught the tail end of the fight, only arriving as Hitomi stood over the bodies of Councilman Basil and Councilwoman Holly, a serpent made of Fire Magic coiled around her as she traded glares with Councilman Loki. The last surviving founder of De’Vas.

He learned later the reason for the fight was the vote on whether to allow the humans known as mages to reside in De’Vas, or be confined to their own district. Hitomi had voted for them to be granted residence within De’Vas, and when she lost by a single vote, she slew the two founders who voted for confinement.

Kaito scoffed. The irony.

One of those mages had almost ruined everything. He hoped that with the death of District 114’s boss and Cleo most likely being dead, Hitomi would come back to her senses. He was taking a risk, but this was the only way to help Piper.

His hand reached out for his club, only to jerk back as a spark of electricity jumped from it at his fingers.

“What in the hells,” he exclaimed, staring at the small burns.

He saw more sparks leap from the club and stepped back, then noticed electricity was arching between buildings, trees, everything around him. The air even began to crackle with it. He felt his stomach turn at the sight and looked to where the human’s corpse was.

“Shit!” Kaito swore, taking another step back.

The corpse was standing, lightning lashing out from it in long arcs. Blue-glowing eyes glared at him, the same blue as the elemental scar on the human’s cheek. Kaito lifted his flask, took a final swig, and grabbed his club. His hand burned from the electricity running through it, but he needed it for whatever the hell was happening.

The human stretched, his caved-in chest expanding out, and he inhaled a breath. At the same time, bolts of lightning streamed from the bloody stump of his arm, and Kaito watched as bone and flesh reformed themselves from the Lightning Magic. Mere seconds, and the human’s body was whole again.

That’s not possible…

The human let out a static-laced roar as claws made of Lightning Magic formed on both his hands. Kaito shifted his stance and readied his weapon, his muscles expanding as he pumped magic into them.

As the human made his desperate charge, Kaito swung his club. Whatever was happening, it was clear the human wasn’t thinking rationally.

As the club was about to strike, Kaito’s eyes widened. Lightning crackled from the human’s body, and he shifted out of the way of the blow. It was almost as if he became lightning for a split second, but that was impossible. Only races whose bodies were made of magic could do something like that. This wasn’t a djinn or one of the fae races, it was a human.

Quickly, Kaito lifted his hand and sent a stream of Fire Magic at the human. He heard thunder and saw the flash of lightning before the arm casting the spell exploded.

He let out a scream of pain as he hurled his club at the human and grabbed the flask. The bitter potion inside barely touched his tongue before he heard thunder again. Bile raced from his stomach as the human’s spell struck his gut and sent him rolling along the ground. When he stopped, Kaito vomited up the remains of the corpses he had eaten along with the potion.

Desperately trying to catch his breath, he stood. He needed to get away from whatever this thing was. His heart raced as he felt beads of sweat dripping down his face. An emotion filled him that he hadn’t felt in some time.

Fear.

He looked around, trying to find this monster, only to see the town empty. Kaito knew that was a lie. He could hear the electricity still crackling as it jumped around him, feel the heavy static in the air. His eyes widened, and he looked up.

Blue wings of Lightning Magic held the human in the air, before the human dove down with his claws ready to strike.

Blood filled Kaito’s mouth as he stared at the human’s arm plunged into his chest. Lighting Magic built up along his arms as the human grinned at him with a savage smile.

Kaito’s remaining hand moved to attack. He needed to crush the human’s head or anything to stop him before he finished the spell. He felt the claws of Lightning Magic hooked into his muscle as the human wore a savage grin, his eyes and scar still glowing blue.

Before Kaito could do anything to stop the spell, he heard the roar of thunder as the world faded black.

Ash

Ash awoke, his head throbbing as he tasted the iron twang of blood in his mouth. He stared at the ground, his mind grasping for where he was. He felt worse than when Bo dragged him into a drinking game at the Twins.

He groaned as he began to push himself up. As he rose from the ground, he stared at his arms.

I should only have one.

The image of a bloody stump flashed in his mind before everything came back to him.

He stood, drawing on his Lightning Magic to summon a Bolt as he looked around for the oni. His heart pounded in his chest as he remembered fighting the bastard, remembered his arm being torn off.

He spotted him leaning against the town’s well, a basketball-sized hole in his chest as his lifeless eyes stared up at the sky.

So the fight was real…

He looked down at his chest, drawing a deep breath. The pain of his broken ribs tearing into his lungs was still fresh in his mind.

There was no way he should be standing after that, let alone have his arm back. His hand clasped over the wrist of the one that had been torn away, feeling the pulse and warmth of it. It was real.

“Sparky,” he said. “What happened?”

FIGHT. KILL. WIN.

“Yeah, that’s really helpful, buddy.” he growled.

Slowly, he approached the dead Council member. As he got closer, he noticed the wisps of smoke that were rising from the body, as well as the Lichtenberg burns covering him. Ash stared at the corpse, trying to piece together the fight, his mind still hazy.

He gritted his teeth as he recalled what the oni had told him. That Cleo was dead.

Please, let him be lying…

Ash knelt down and began searching Councilman Kaito. He needed to find the damn silver ball, he needed to get back home. The search was over fairly quickly as his armor didn’t have any pouches, and the only thing Ash found was the strange flask on his hip.

“Where is it, you bastard!” Ash growled, kicking the corpse.

He turned and looked at the tavern the oni had been standing by when Ash first arrived. Taking the flask, he moved toward the building. As he opened the door and stepped inside, the scene was very different from the carnage and death in the rest of the town.

The tavern was well lit with candles, and the heat of the fire in the fireplace took the chill out of the early morning air. Ash heard faint music and looked at the bar counter. There a cellphone sat there beside a modern backpack. He picked up the phone and saw music was playing on it. He also noticed that the lock screen was a picture of Councilwoman Piper smiling.

Ash’s grip tightened on the phone, recalling what Kaito had said about Piper killing Cleo. The screen started to crack before he let up on his grip.

He swore as he set the phone down. Destroying it did nothing, he might even be able to guess the password and unlock it.

Save my anger for the real Piper.

He turned his attention to the backpack and started to unzip it. The first thing he found was clothing, followed by some snacks from Earth. Then he grabbed something round, and his heart started to race. Carefully, he pulled the object out.

“We’re going home,” Ash said as he held the silver ball.