Maiya cried out in pain as her wound wept. There was no blood—instead, a wispy, milk-like substance floated out.
Instead of falling to the ground, it traveled through the air as if it weighed nothing at all… To Ekanai. To the object he gripped in his deformed hand.
It was a crystal sphere, the size of an A Grade combat orb, except it was empty and colorless. Transparent.
Maiya’s essence floated to the orb and entered it. The sphere glowed slightly brighter, its color changing subtly.
“Prana?” Vir said incredulously, seeing Ice and Wind Affinity prana circulate within it.
Ekanai snarled. “Nothing so mundane. This is something far more precious. Her essence. Her soul.”
“What is this nonsense?” Maiya shouted, her indignation laced with a trace of fear.
“It’s a rare occasion for a soul to detach from its body,” Ekanai said, casually tossing and catching the sphere as if it were a juggling ball. “Even our best thaumaturges only ever reproduce that feat by accident. I’d be remiss not to harvest you.”
“Excuse me?” Maiya said, looking like she was about to fly into a rage. “What did you just say?”
Ekanai ignored her and turned to Vir, his snarl widening. “Every wound I inflict on her fills this orb until all of her is in here. When that happens, I’m afraid your friend over there will exist only as prana and chakra. I wonder what sort of spell she’ll become?”
Become? A spell? What nonsense is this?
There was such a deep wrongness to his words. Even more than him wanting to kill her. Ekanai didn’t even see Maiya as a person. He saw her as a tool. Something to be used.
“You’re lying,” Vir spat, feeling like he wanted to vomit. To Ekanai, that was all that people ever were. His blatant disregard for life shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Not after all those times the demon had taken over, violating the sanctity of his own body.
Vir had never hated anyone as much as he hated Ekanai in that moment. The knowledge that this… creature was a part of him—that he’d been Ekanai in a past life—made it all the worse.
“That’s not possible,” Vir croaked, his voice hoarse. “How can you just… use a soul for spells? You’re just trying to rile me up.”
It wasn’t just emotion behind his words though. Ekanai couldn’t be real. Like all of Vir’s predecessors, Ekanai had died. How could Vir have reincarnated otherwise? Besides, whatever was left of the demon had perished to save him in the Mahādi Realm.
Ekanai shrugged. “Have you wondered how the gods created magic? Isn’t it strange? Magic suddenly came to be, when there had been none before. Since the Age of Gods, no new spells have been created. Ever.”
Vir glanced back at Maiya, not quite knowing what to make of that. Ashani never mentioned a time before magic. All he knew for certain was that the gods had indeed created the orbs, and that nobody had replicated the feat ever since. It was hardly suspicious; so much of what the Imperium accomplished was incomprehensible to humans and demons alike.
“I don’t see how this is relevant,” Vir replied, doing his best to ignore the terror mounting within him. If Ekanai wanted to ramble, Vir wasn’t about to stop him. It gave him precious time to plan.
Ekanai grinned viciously. “Ah, but it is. Do you know how the first orbs came to be? Do you know what lies at their core?”
Maiya stared daggers at Ekanai, a grim, determined expression set on her face. Vir was relieved to see that her wound had stopped leaking, despite not having been treated. And yet, she had certainly paid a price.
Maiya was now noticeably more translucent than she’d been before. Vir could no longer make out some of the details of her clothing—they blended in with the scenery—and her normally fiery hair was barely even visible.
“Maiya, are you—”
“I’m fine, Vir,” she wheezed, breathing raggedly. “Just feel like my energy got sapped, but it’s okay. I’m okay. Now come on. We need a plan. Like when we fought Cirayus. He bleeds. He can be killed. We can do this, but only if we work together.”
Vir nodded, his fear abating slightly. It lasted only a moment. Ekanai’s next words drained the blood from his face.
“Oh, don’t worry. She won’t die, per se. The souls continue to exist within the orbs. In a way, you could say she’ll become immortal, so long as her crystal remains intact. How does that make you feel, boy? To see your precious loved one turned into a weapon, used by your enemy to kill you?”
Her… soul? Vir’s eyes went wide. No. It couldn’t be. Then that means…
Blood roared to Vir’s head and before he knew it, he was attacking the demon recklessly.
“Vir! Stop! Don’t let him goad you!”
Vir couldn’t hear her. All he heard was Ekanai’s laughter as he danced easily away from Vir’s attacks.
I can’t even land a single strike!
He’d never felt as hopelessly frustrated as he did in that moment.
“Vir!” Maiya shouted again, and finally, Vir regained his senses.
He jumped back, returning to Maiya. Ekanai merely grinned, as if daring him to attack again.
“Isn’t it weird?” Maiya said. “Ekanai was supposed to be a warrior, right? A killer. Not a thaumaturge. How does he know all this?” She had a point. How did Ekanai know of the origin of magic? That was Saunak’s domain, not the Reaper’s. None of it made sense.
Unless…
There was one explanation that fit—that none of this was real—that it was all a figment of his imagination. A dream. That the Maiya who was here wasn’t actually Maiya, and that all of this was for the express purpose of sparking some form of progression within Vir.
“Do you see, boy?” Ekanai snarled. “This is why she is a shackle. She’s a burden who’ll make you sink. I’m just cutting you loose.”
“This burden just injured you. An inch more, and I would’ve had your neck. What makes you think I’m just going to lie down and let you?” Maiya snapped. “I’ll die before I let you use me like that.”
“Oh, please do. You’d only hasten the process. You’re quite vulnerable in that state, girl. More than you seem to think.”
He has to be bluffing. But if he wasn’t… If Vir failed—if he allowed Ekanai to capture Maiya’s essence—she’d suffer a fate worse than death. Doomed to watch as her own power was used to—
Vir purged the thought. Maiya was right. Ekanai was trying to manipulate him. To break him. Maybe this was all real or… or maybe it was just some elaborate illusion. Right now, it didn’t matter.
I won’t let you.
“What do you want from me?” Vir said, doing his best to keep his tone even. He tugged desperately on his limited mastery of the Foundation Chakra and found it barely helped. He’d never felt such fear in his life. “Why are you doing this?”
“I am fixing my mistake in the Godshollow, when I allowed the girl to live. You are the last of us. Do you understand? The last. A pathetic, weak bearer of our legacy though you might be, the fact remains. As you are, you will die miserably. Worse—you will fail. My purpose is to ensure that does not happen. By whatever means necessary.”
Vir had had enough.
“Keep him occupied,” Vir said. “If he uses Clarity on you, he can’t protect himself from me.”
“That’s more like it!” Maiya said, readying her daggers.
Prana Current cycled faster than ever before, wreathing Vir in flames of black prana as he fired such a deluge of both Chakram Barrage and Katar Barrage that the surroundings grew dark—filled with pitch-black Ash prana.