Ri-is followed Yukimi and Tobi to the medical ward. The door creaked open and they stepped inside. The trio was greeted by Bellany who was holding a little girl up so she could feel the petals of a flower in a hanging basket near the window.
Tobi waved at them. "Hey, mom! We came to do the thing!"
Bellany turned to look at them. "Oh! You gave Ri-is the arm!" She placed the little girl down on a couch by the window and walked over to them. "Come this way, Yukimi and I were working on a way to attach the arm in a way that allowed you to do magic again. We've worked it out as best we could but it isn't perfect."
Yukimi led Ri-is to a table and let him hop onto it. "We've never done a procedure like this but your mom was nice enough to lend us lots of books on how to reattach magical circuits...I mean those we're all with actual limbs but it should still work with what we made!"
Ri-is was in awe, not quite sure what to say. So he simply let them lay him down on the table. Not knowing what else to do, he looked over at Tobi and Yukimi for reassurance.
Tobi smiled. "Yukimi said that this might take a while since they have to attach each circuit individually but it shouldn't be painful."
Yukimi hummed in agreement, gently brushing some hair out of Ri-is eyes. "Once we start connecting them your shi will start to spark from the newly attached circuits so we need to keep you awake to help regulate that. Don't worry though you'll feel all tingly but it won't hurt. You're a demigod so you've got enough magic power for the circuits to reconnect fairly easily too. "
"Okay..." whispered Ri-is.
Tobi moved to get out of their way. He sat down on the couch with the little girl from before, letting her grab onto his fingers. Bellany and Yukimi began to work on attaching the arm to Ri-is.
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|Afternoon|93Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFHYN8QEJh
July•14•xxxx
Egan had spent all day with Isabelle. From the moment he opened his eyes and saw her sleeping peacefully beside him, til now. After she was dragged out of bed by a disgruntled Albus and scolded for casually crawling into bed with a boy, he had gotten up and snuck away, too tired to deal with Albus' ire so early in the morning. When the village became too much of a bore, he wandered out into the Forest of Flames. The crunching of the leaves beneath his feet filled him with a strange sense of nostalgia.
Memories of running desperately through the forest outside of the spirit asylum rang in his head. The way his feet hit the ground, trampling over the brush beneath them before his shock collar finally went off, bringing him down to his knees in a fit of pain. Egan came to a stop, closing his eyes and shaking away the thoughts that consumed him. The sound of footsteps caught his attention and he instinctively ducked behind the trunk of a large tree that had fallen over. A man's voice coasted through the forest. It was extremely familiar and set off all kinds of alarms in Egan's head.
"How long is this going to take?"
"We'll get them soon and be able to cash in on their worth. This is just a little hiccup, " replied a woman.
The man kissed his teeth. "This is all because you were impatient! How could you just waltz up to them? Now they're onto us!"
"I'm not the one that let them escape! Maybe if you hadn't drunk yourself into the ground like that, you would have noticed the bloody monster breaking out of your asylum. How could you be so incompe-"
The unmistakable crack of knuckles against flesh rang out, followed by silence. Against his better judgment, he poked his head around the tree trunk to see what had happened. The woman had her hand over her cheek and a scowl on her face. He recognized that scowl. It was Nasmira's.
"Don't forget your place woman. If you think just because you spread your legs for me a few times it gives you the right to speak to me like that, you are greatly mistaken."
Once Egan laid eyes on the man, he felt a familiar sense of dread pool in the pit of his stomach. Eyes filled with contempt and rage settled on him and he flinched.
"...is that...Egan?"
Nasmira followed the man's gaze and spotted Egan as well. Before she could say anything, the man was bounding over to the boy. Instinctively, Egan bolted up, ready for a fight. Sparks began to fly as the air around him exploded with heat and his body transformed like it had when he and Isabelle had first escaped. In the short amount of time it took Egan to transform, the man had unwrapped the rope that tied his tunic together. At the end of it was a small blueish stone tied tightly by the rope. It looked far too small to do significant damage, but the way that it mysteriously glowed was enough for anyone to know that it was most likely a magical tool that shouldn't be underestimated.
Egan's hooves beat against the ground, sending tremors through it. Nasmira stumbled back in shock. She had never seen a creature like him before. The second Egan charged at the man, the man whipped the stone in his direction. It hit Egan so hard that it nearly embedded itself in his shoulder. When it did, Egan felt his transformation slip away almost as fast as he has summoned it and he was left on his knees, with a completely human body and a hole in his shoulder, blood seeping through the wound and staining his clothes.
Egan stumbled to his feet in confusion. The man's lopsided smirk was bone-chillingly vile. It was clear that he was taking perverse pleasure in the pain he inflicted on the young boy. "Oh come now, don't look so confused." He twirled stone in the rope.
Even though it was now covered in blood, Egan could still make out the faint blue glow it emitted. "Shit...what the...what did you do to me! What the hell is that?"
"Precious Kisha material. I stole it from the ancient lab after your latest escape. I heard it was useful against...your kind."
The man's words were filled with venom. Egan bit his lip in vexation. Before the man could say anything, Egan had taken off in a dead sprint, even without his transformation, he was still faster than them. His legs take him as far as he can go before he found himself having to fuck behind a cluster of fallen trees when the blood loss began rendering him rather dizzy. He climbed into one of the larger tree trunks, chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. In the distance, he could hear the man's enraged shouts. Sparks began to tumble from Egan's body as he attempted to transform again. However, his transformation was slower this time.
He crawled out of the trunk and stood with his arms outstretched. From the flames that engulfed them came a bow the frantic crunching of leaves echoed through the forest as Nasmira and the man searched for the boy. Just as Dante's form peeked out from behind a tree, Egan lifted the bow. They locked eyes and Egan's pulse quickened as he let an arrow fly. Dante was quick to react though, beating away the arrow with his sling. He wasn't able to come out completely unscathed though. The sheer force of the arrow being knocked back by the sling caused it to snap and ricochet, grazing Dante above the eye.
Dante dropped his sling and slapped his hand over his eye. Egan took the opportunity to charge him again, only to be met with Nasmira scrambling to get the whip. Her hands shook as she whipped it at Egan, knocking him to his knees. It wasn't as hard a blow as Dante's because of how awfully she was shaking, but the magical stone was enough to stun him. His transformation slipped away once it made contact with his skin yet again. Nasmira began desperately untangling the sling, meaning to whip it at him again to make sure he stayed down but before she could, the ground beneath her began to ripple, throwing her to the ground as it softened enough to let her feet sink in up to her ankles and then her hands up to her wrists once she hit the ground.
Before she could pull herself out, the ground hardened again and, trapping her in place. In front of her, dust and dirt clouded her vision as a wall of rock raised from the ground, making a barrier between Egan and the pair.
The rustling of leaves behind Egan caught his attention. When a tired but clearly worried voice emerged from the bushes, Egan turned his head towards it.
"Are you okay?"
"Isabelle?"
"Can you walk? We need to hurry! My magic isn't strong enough, the wall won't hold for long."
She extended her hand towards him and he took it, letting her help him up. Before they could get far, they could hear the wall shatter behind them and the unmistakable blue glow of the stone on the sling came flying through the debris. It shot right through Isabelle's thigh and she fell to the ground, her pained scream echoing through the forest. She looked to her left to see that the stone had gone through him too. Behind them, an fuming Dante approached. Unable to run, they braced themselves for the worse.
The faint glow of the blue stone whipped into the air once more as it was hurled towards Egan and Isabelle. Sparks of magical energy fluttered into Isabelle's field of view when Egan ducked in front of her. When the sling caught Egan around his neck Dante yanked it back, dragging Egan to the ground. His knees were bloodied and scratched but the bursts of shi continued to grow. Dante pulled with all his might, trying to drag Egan towards him, but by the time he had managed to move Egan even an inch, Egan was already partially transformed into an infrit.
The distinct growl of a tethered beast vibrated through the forest, shaking even the trees. Behind him, Isabelle struggled to focus on creating a small golemn rather than the pain in her thigh. She managed to scramble together a half-baked doll with a single blade for a hand. Despite its crumbling form, it moved rather quickly, climbing over Egan's shoulder and slicing off the sling that bound him. Once he was free, He helped Isabelle onto his back and moved to get away, but before he could get very far, Nasmira slashed at his ankles with a dagger she had been keeping hidden on her person. They were so occupied with trying to avoid Dante's attack that they hadn't seen her coming.
"DON"T KILL THEM! They're useless to us dead!" Shouted Dante.
Nasmira flipped the dagger aiming to knock Egan out with the back of it. Isabelle and Egan held each other trying to pull one another across the bloodied ground beneath them but with his ankles slashed and her leg steadily bleeding out, they couldn't move very fast. Nasmira took the chance and swung the dagger down as hard as she could. Isabelle shut her eyes, holding onto Egan for dear life as she braced for the worst. The sound of something cracking silenced the commotion.
"W-What are you...how did you-" Nasmira fumbled over her words in a panic. "How did you find-"
Before she could say anything else A fist collided with her face and she stumbled back grasping at her now broken nose. Albus wiped the blood off of his hardened knuckles. Most of his body now reflected his gargoyle blood, a small crack where he had blocked Nasmira was the only blemish to the stone. Turning his attention to the kids, he picked Isabelle up and placed a hand of Egan's shoulder.
"Need some help?"
Egan pushed himself up despite the aching in his legs. "I can move just...not fast.." He took a step and winced.
Out of the corner of his eye Albus could see Dante slowly inching towards Nasmira. He turned to face them stomping hard on the ground and sending a rush of rock and earth rumbling towards them. It knocked Dante right off of his feet, causing him to crash to the ground.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you."
Dante groaned angrily. "How did you find us?"
"You really think we wouldn't send a search party out after what happened? You're more stupid than I gave you credit for. Before Ea left he gave his soldiers instructions to investigate Isabelle's kidnapping. I tagged along to see what kind of shit you put my daughter through. We were able to find that decrepit old asylum you were working out of."
Albus looked down at Nasmira with a look of blatant disgust. "I must say, You have rotten luck mother," he said mockingly. "When we were on our way back we heard shouting and came to see what had happened. That's when we found all of you here."
Just as he said that, the soldiers he had come with had finally caught up to him. They emerged from the behind the trees, surrounding Nasmira and Dante.
"Arrest them," commanded Albus.
"You ungrateful rat! THIS is how you treat your mother?" Nasmira violently shrugged away the soldiers that picked her up. "UNHAND ME!" Her resistance was met with equal force as they restrained her, dragging her away from Albus.
"Let's hurry back. These two need medical attention," He said.93Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHdWpqSO3b
