The drones have kept him abreast of any signs of elemental runaways, but so far, their trip towards the mountain has been uneventful. The past hour and a half of walking was met with silence, one that he appreciates the most as he needed the silence to recover from his addled condition after he woke up. By now, he should be fine and in proper condition to fight, not that there are any signs of any elemental movement. He decided to keep the drones searching for traces of elemental movements and actively looked around for any signs of elementals with he help of his enchantment. Things have been going smoothly until it was not, for him at least.
A whisper echoes behind him, one he is all too familiar with.
"No fight left to fight... no life left to live..." The voice of the demon inside him whispers menacingly. Michael kept his cool and shrugged it off as he doesn't want his 'comrades' to fuss over him, possibly delaying them from reaching the mountain. For awhile, there was another silence. He kept his focus on his HeXcry and the broadcasted feed from his drones, which worked until the whisper came back. The silence has afforded him the focus he needed to perform his task effectively, and it was all fine until the voice came back.
"You can't trust them."This made him stop in his tracks and stare at the two in front of him. To him, they aren't doing anything suspicious, and even if they did, he trusted them to cooperate to get the job done in a timely manner. He was confused as to why the demon would say something it doesn't even know. Regardless of his own circumstances, he must move forward to reach the mountain. Walking to it in itself is tiring enoug, and his vision darkens until he could see the demon in front of him beside his companions. He could barely see anything save for his comrades walking to their destination.
"Don't you see? They were staring daggers at you earlier." The demon once again whispered, this time tricking him into getting angry.
"They must think you weird. Look at these savages and their flimsy magics. They must think they're better than you." The demon tempted Michael into giving in to his anger, a cheap trick to advance its influence over its host. To think that mere words could change and impact an individual proves just how powerful words are against mortals like Michael.
"We could kill them, and take the reward for ourselves. No more cocky mages and their pathetic excuse of magics." That would have worked if it weren't for the magic module Giselle implanted on his magic which suppressed his emotions up to a certain degree. He was about to enter a trance and he felt himself get dragged into the darkness when he felt a slight shock bring him back from reality. The demon was gone and his vision returned to normal. He played it cool to avoid drawing suspicion from his companions. To them, nothing should be out of the ordinary while he was confronted with one of his inner demons.
Eventually, an unfamiliar voice rang inside his head. He was sure enough it was going to be one of the demons. At this point, he was already a little paranoid from the sojourning demon in his subconscious. What did they want from him?
"Michael." He heard the demon call out to his name, but he can barely hear it. Seeing as it the voice was faint, he deduced it fine enough for him to ignore it. He kept hearing the faint voice call out to him again and again. He kept ignoring it until he could hear the demon loud and clear.
"MICHAEL!" The voice called out. Everything went black as he felt himself dragged into the darkness.
Standing before him is no ordinary demon. It looked like an anthropomorphic lion with white colored fur and mane. It bore a striking resemblance to his sibling, Francois, donning intricate and expensive attire, though the lion demon before him looked like it came from the east. It was slightly bigger than him, its large stature towering over him.
"I've been meaning to talk to you."Michael looked around. Everything was in darkness. He noticed he wasn't moving at all, just standing on the black floor. Nothing was showing from his HeXcry, though it looked like his HeXcry isn't even working at all.
"Don't worry. Your body is on autopilot. We can talk here without raising suspicion from your peers, but we don't have much time." Michael squints his eyes at the lion and tries to bring out his pistol, hoping that this is a chance for him to slay one of the demons inside him. Unfortunately, he couldn't summon his firearm. This left him no choice but to converse with the demon.
"What do you want?" He begrudgingly questions the demon despite his unpleasant experiences.
"Pardon for my rude interruption. I am Aslan, and I've the mind to help you in your quest." The demon extends his hand as means of goodwill, though it proved futile as Michael is reluctant to deal with him. "What makes you think I can trust you?" He questioned Aslan's motives in bringing him here, wherever they are in. He didn't trust him for the fact that he was a demon, and the likes of him has caused irreparable damage and frenzied onslaught, thinking back at the time when he lost control of himself and let his emotions get the best of him. There was also the demon who tempted him into betraying the party. "I'm not coercing you into doing anything stupid, am I? That should be proof enough, though I understand. We barely even knew each other."
"Fine," he reluctantly accepted Aslan's help,
"what can you give me that won't turn me into a bloodthirsty maniac?""I am a master of magic and my knowledge for anything magical will surely help you in your endeavors. I will let you borrow... a piece. Of myself. Specifically my eye, and at the same time, a part of my consciousness will be brought forth whenever you borrow this part of me, where we will become one temporarily. Do we have a deal?" Aslan didn't offer that much to him, but if he really is a master of magic, the eyes should be a useful tool in his quests. On the surface, it seemed pretty harmless. Aslan extends his hand to him once more, expecting him to shake it to signify that their deal has been made. Michael extended his and shook his hand.
"Deal.""Excellent." Michael felt himself being dragged away from the darkness, leaving the demon behind. He was brought back to his own body and everything was fine. He could still feel Aslan's presence inside him, and it's slowly fading away.
"I will await the time you will make use of my eye." He says, his presence fading out until he could no longer feel him. Everything was back to normal.
Roughly 30 minutes went by as 'Shadows' relayed to them the history of the mines as well as current situation inside it, observing an odd behavior between the two elementals. He had also listened to 'Swarm's ramblings of the accuracy of the information given to them as well as the possibility of elemental fusions. He didn't skip a beat as he closed his eyes to draw upon Aslan's power, opening them once more. Everything looked sharper and clearer, and what was new to him is that he could see the presence of ethernanos everywhere. He didn't expect Aslan to lend him his eyes, but any help is good help.
"See as I see." Aslan's voice echoed inside him. He faced the mountains and saw faint traces of ethernanos that seemed out of place.
"I am pretty sure you know nothing of mage speak, so I shall briefly take charge." As this happens, Michael felt himself unable to move himself or speak, but he can still see. 90% of Aslan's consciousness was brought to surface, and Michael didn't expect that. In a way, he was telling the truth, but he felt betrayed by the amount of control Aslan has over him. He isn't complaining as he trusts Aslan to do what needs to be done.
And, as if in unison, he found himself talking with Aslan. He wanted to address the question regarding fusion between elementals.
"Unless you're practicing forbidden alchemy or using advanced magic, fusion between two beings is impossible. If you put it in another perspective, it would make sense." He says as he scratches his chin, or rather, the chin part of the helmet.
"What would you get if two races had an offspring? It would result to a hybrid. It is a possibility that such is the case for an elemental fusion." As he explained in detail about elemental fusions, he pointed his finger at the mountain, before continuing.
"In which it is also a possiblity there are elemental hybrids in that mountain. Something is amiss in the mines, I can feel it. The flow of ethernanos seemed faintly corrupt, but from where we are, I cannot say for certain."[ Word Count - 3056 / x ]
HeXwarm Emergency Drones - 2 posts
HeXighted Visuals - 2 posts
Eye of Aslan - 8 posts