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The deafening silence and endless dark void was Magpie's only companion. She had her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms wrapped around. She bit at times at her lower lip and stared out to the darkness. At times a chill ran down her spine although no cool breeze or crisp cold was causing it, yet she trembled in her wake.409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqArZ6scq7i
Suddenly a soft hum cut through the silence and darkness like a purr. "Magpie." Soon the voice was at her ear and felt its warm breath on her skin, giving her the shivers. "You're trembling, dearest." Within a blink, Shadow stood in front of her and wrapped a wool blanket gently over her shoulders. "I assure you that you won't be long in this place. I have other plans for you and will take good care of you since you allow me to use your magic and body." He offers his hand to help her up.
"You speak through roses, but you can't fool me." Gave Magpie shortly and clutched the blanket tighter as she stood up.
Shadow smiled, revealing a set of sharp needle teeth. "It is the truth. You are more than that obnoxious caster. His magic and body were alright just not his soul and gave him a fair warning for your sake." He held at her chin to lift her gaze.
"For my sake! If what you do is called love, it is not! Why are you doing all this?" Magpie's voice was at the brink of trembling and stepped back from him. His blood-red eyes pierced her's, and they glowed for a brief moment as his smile vanished. She saw him for the first time his true form. The eyes remained the same and the grey film, but he had long wavy dark hair to the elbow and was clean-shaven around the jaw. He wore strange apparel that Magpie has never seen before, covered in various markings and letters in red as his glowing eyes. (single bodysuit)
After a moment glaring at her angered, Shadow scoffed with a smirk. "That is a secret, and I will share in good time, but what I can tell you is that my love for you is real. Your spirit, strength and wit never cease to surprise me." He slowly walks around, Magpie with his hands folded behind his back. "Since I am a spirit and witnessed many centuries, I thought I'd seen it all, but you've proven me more than once how wrong I was." He stops as he is behind her and whispers to her ear. "Knowing now that you've never loved anyone until you met the caster, you're not bad in kissing. He would have been a lucky man if you weren't here."
Magpie faced him with a silent glare.
Shadow slithered his arms around her waist. "Mhmm, I've never felt anything from a kiss except from you. A pleasurable thrill that one wants to savour in every moment and it's more than just a physical connection, it's one to the soul or in my case to the spirit."
Magpie stepped away from him, tears welled in her eyes, and her breathing trembled.
"Why so shocked? Here no one can hear or interfere, and you can be your true self." Gave Shadow calmly. She slowly shook her head to his words. Within a flash, Shadow stood in front of her with a broad grin and tenderly wiped away her tears with his thumb. "There is no need to be alone for now on. Well, you were never alone ever since I sent you to this world." He pauses and looks into her eyes. "Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are? Especially your eyes with that unique turquoise hue?" He kisses a tear that rolled over her cheek.
Magpie wanted to scream at the top of her lungs and slap him, but she was too terrified. She trembled within his touch. As Shadow opened the embrace, she made distance from him. He hums amused of her reaction and vanishes without a trace.
As everyone lay to rest, Ignatius tossed and turned. His mind couldn't leave the spitting image of Magpie's sad smile before giving in to Shadow. He clenched his teeth and soon balled his hands into fists in anger and shame. I'll hold my promise, Magpie. I will free you. 409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9clVoYGOO
Suddenly his train of thoughts was interrupted by hushed voices. One of them he recognized as Vandal's but not the other. Silently he tiptoed towards the open door frame of the hall and listened with his back glued to the wall.
"What is it?" Wondered Vandal. That sentence piqued Ignatius' curiosity and glanced beyond the frame.
"The Eye of Aion, or at least that's what the aeromancer called it." Spoke another man who had his back turned to Ignatius. He had dark hair and in his hand glowed in blue a unique cross with a strange moving eye Ignatius has ever seen before. He sensed from the stranger and the object strong magic but hard to define if good or not as the dark-haired stranger confirmed the death of the aeromancer by the name Caecius, that just heightened Ignatius' suspicion on the man. He retreated behind the wall to remain to be unseen but listened until the other left. For a long moment, there was silence until Vandal moved, Ignatius quickly put on his boots and followed him to the lobby. He hid silently behind a large sofa and watched what Vandal did with some plant. Confused on whether preparing a complex spell or something else related to magic.
Suddenly the dagger in his boot began to glow bright white light and grew rapidly hot as if fresh from the blacksmith's furnace. Ignatius tried to unsheathe it but dropped it and waved his slightly burnt hand in the air while sucking through his teeth to cope the pain. As the pain ebbed away, he turned back to Vandal; he was standing right in front of him with the gun at hand, looking down with a neutral expression. "What are you doing?"
Ignatius swallowed and forced a wry smile. "I could ask you the same-"
"The windows to the soul is the key to break the circle that holds me." Magpie's voice emitted from the dagger.
"That's Magpie." Vandal gave surprised.
Ignatius inspected the dagger closer. The tip of the sharp blade pierced into the carpet and floor. "This doesn't make sense."
Vandal crouched down to follow what Ignatius sees. The dagger looks simple at first glance, but when inspecting closer, there were details that made it unique. The handle was made out of bronze coloured metal and covered in special twirling ornaments that were also engraved on the blade.
"The windows to the soul is the key to break the circle that holds me." Repeated Magpie.
"It's a message." Noted Ignatius with narrowed eyebrows while glaring at the white glowing knife. "And this is no ordinary dagger. It's a magical one and can be used to enhance or focus a spell, aside for its obvious purpose." He scoffed with a sigh. "Magpie really has the talent to become a great caster, even when she denies it." He pauses. "But what is she trying to say with that message?" Ignatius walks around the glowing weapon with crossed arms. Above all how did she do it? I assume she never knew her favourite is a magical one and I never showed her how to leave a message in a magical object. Is Shadow behind this, if so, what is his plan? Slowly the glowing faded away, cautiously he touched the blade and felt cool smooth surface. He pulled it out and soon flips it in his hand.
Vandal stood up and wondered why Ignatius was playing with the weapon.
Quickly Ignatius pulls forth a throwing knife and compares the weight with the dagger. "Interesting."
"What is?" Wondered Vandal.
"See for yourself." Ignatius does a quick flip of the two knives and points the hilts to Vandal. Vandal cautiously takes the knives into his hands and feels the dagger is lighter than the little throwing knife.
"That is a special attribute when it comes to magical weapons from my world." Explained Ignatius. "But the message, what do you make of it?" I wonder if Vandal sees it as I do?
Vandal handed back the knives to him. "You know her and Shadow better than me."
I do have an interpretation of her message, but it doesn't make sense, and I have no facts to rely on. Ignatius gave a thoughtful hum and nodded.
Vandal blinked surprised to his response. "I'll keep watch tonight." He sighed and walked off.
Ignatius placed a hand on Vandal's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "I heard you talking with another man earlier."
Vandal stared at him.
"I couldn't sleep and couldn't help overhearing your conversation. Who was that man, and what is the Eye of Aion?"
Vandal sighed. "His name is Moryuu."
"Is he on your side? Can you trust him?"
"I don't know. I assume he is and yes I do trust him." Answered Vandal. "I thought you knew him from the times when Shadow possessed you."
Ignatius grunted. "He managed to black me out on many moments, knowing I would get in his way." He paused. "He must be stopped, or all of us are going to die."
"Do you know what he plans to do?"
"I can only hazard a guess."
"That's comforting." Noted Vandal doubtful.
Suddenly Ignatius' right hand began to itch, he looked down and saw the tattoo changing. The small star-circle slowly vanished as if it was never there. Rapidly he looked up and searched around for something. "Windows." He muttered and paced off back to the room where he tried to sleep. Pastel colours of yellow, orange and green merged in the sky. "Sunrise, it's morning." This just proves it; the message is real! Magpie is calling out for help!
"Ig-?" Wondered Vandal and followed Ignatius.
"Magpie is on limited time. When the tattoo on my hand vanishes, she will be trapped with Shadow forever." Gave Ignatius gravely.
Shadow sniggered as he peered on the smooth surface of still water in a silver bowl. "Too right you are." He waved a hand over the surface to dissolve the image in the water. "Let's make this a bit more exciting." He walked over to the cupboards, brought the bowl and a pack of black liquid that says 'blood type +A' to the table. "This human blood may be spoiled but is still good enough for its purpose." Muttered Shadow to himself and paced off to another room down the long hallway. In a small kitchen he found some containers of spices and in the broken-down fridge, one's leftover with lots of meat spoiled. "Dead meat, not exactly what I expected, but this will do."
As he returned to the room with the bowl, he placed his new collections on the table in a certain row. Shadow opened the Tupperware of the spoiled leftover cautiously, a hiss of vacuum emitted, and threw it into a large metal bowl. With a scalpel, he torn open the bag of blood and poured in the bowl along with some spices and the water from the silver bowl. "All that is missing is magic and a pinch of mine own." He smiled maliciously as he recited the arcane words for his complex spell.
Suddenly red flames burst around the bowl and lifted it near to the ceiling of the room.
"Rise my minion!" He laughed as a storm of strong wind filled the air. A loud metallic shriek came from the floating bowl and soon followed a strong smell of rotting flesh. "You need my blood to remain strong!" Shadow lifted his right hand and cut the skin with the scalpel at his tattoo. Ruby red drops didn't roll down but floated up to the flames and bowl, submerging. The flames roared as they gave off great heat and covered the entire bowl. Slowly the bowl melted into liquid form and began to reshape to a larger and different form. As the figure reformed, it floated back, sitting on the table, staring blankly at Shadow for a long moment. The room grew very still. It blinked and tilted its head to one side. "Master?" Came from the figure. The voice sounded like that of a young girl's voice.
"Yes." Hissed Shadow with evil joy and his eyes glowed for a moment and inspected his new creation carefully by walking around the table. The rotting smell has vanished, and Shadow found himself walking around a young girl wearing a pink princess costume. "You're perfect, dear." He offers his hand to help her down the table.
The young girl sprung down. "I can manage on my own, thank you." and gave an eerie deep growl as she glared at Shadow.
"Very well, Ravage," scoffed Shadow amused. "I want you to keep an eye on these people and distract them, at best separate them however possible. Kill them if you want to but not the caster called Ignatius or the young woman with dark hair called Nu or Nuallis. You got that?" He knelt to look into her eyes. "Or else it will be the last thing you do," Shadow growled deeply.
"Yes, master. It will be my pleasure." The girl smiled and revealed a set of needle-like teeth.
Ignatius:409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9k1QL6hNN
Energy/mana: 7/10409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYL67TcyOu2
Throwing knives: 5/5 (picked up the one used at Cordis after the fight)
Magpie: mentally trapped in her own mind by Shadow
Shadow: hiding in an abandoned hospital, at the moment409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqF6581eDtb
Energy/mana: 12/15 (grown stronger with Magpie's magic)409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4aFDIdxRiF
To produce a spell costs: 2-3 mana/energy409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqh8OWXAHH0
Weakness: physical combats without magic409Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmJtAi5HWI
