“M-Merry, I need to check on Merry…”, is all I could think on the spur-of-the-moment,“M-Merry, how are you holding on?”, I would ask while dropping on one knee.
“T-This fucker…”, she would mumble, her voice barely above a whisper. “YOU IDIOT!”, she would cry with a yell, “YOU PROMISED US TEN MINUTES!”, impulsively punching with all of her remaining strength upon my approach.
“I… I know… something outside of my control happened during my inner trial…”, this would be the only explanation I could deliver, but this would only make her cry in rage.
“WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU MEDITATE IN A SITUATION LIKE THIS!?”, she would ask, hitting my face with the back of her sword, “I SHOULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!”
Upon witnessing her actions, I would feel a pang in my chest, the gravity of my mistake being more than I initially though.
“SHE’S DYING!”, gripping the collar of my shirt, she would cry out, “DO SOMETHING!”, ripping it in the process of pulling me closer to her.
“I… I don’t know what to do… I’ve already given her all the energy I could spare, before my last attack…”, I would reply with a sigh, my voice cracking under the pressure of her fierce, teary gaze. “If I had all of my memories…”, but alas, all I could do was look down ashamed, with tears in my eyes, as these memories cannot be simply just unlocked when I wish to do so, “I’m sorry… I’ve failed you both…”
Her eyes would blaze with fury upon hearing my words of sorrow, causing her tears to overflow.
“Y-...You’re... SORRY!?”, were the last words I could hear, before she would clench her teeth in anger and headbutt me in the nose, causing my exhausted body to fall on the hard ground beneath.
A surge of guilt and shame would wash over me as I would catch LeiLei’s body with the less bloodied side of my eye, her battered body barely holding on to dear life due to Mer Xia’s aura keeping her heart beating.
“Please…”, I begged, my voice trembling with emotion and exhaustion. “Let’s get out of here first… We’ll find a way… somehow…”
But Mer Xia would shook her head, her eyes red-rimmed from having the bear the pain of her life-long friend sacrificing herself for her well being. “No… We need to talk about what happened,” she would say quietly. “I can’t keep up the aura for too long, but I can’t let you go either,” she would say, tears flowing down on her cheeks. “Why did it take so long? Why did LeiLei have to sacrifice herself?”, she would ask, questions which would inadvertently make me swallow hard in the process, feeling the sting of my failure.
“I… don’t know… I think my demonic energy interfered with the breaking of the seal… I wish I could’ve broken it faster… it’s all my fault,” and while my answer would obviously not satisfy her, she would settle down for the time being.
“We should’ve fought together…” she would say, while attempting to pick Lei Zhao off the ground and carry her, disappointment and disgust would be clear in her voice.
But while we would talk, in the distance, a familiar silhouette would make her appearance.
“You two,” a voice of a woman would cut Mer Xia’s words mid-sentence, “who are you?” she would say while continuously approaching from the right side of the electrified canyon. “You’ve left quite the landmark here… and judging from all the slaughtered demons, you’re quite powerful.”
Mer Xia would snort in disgust, “Great, another one…”
The female demon’s gaze would snap towards Merry, as if to send a warning, before it would quickly return to me.
“You didn’t answer my question, who are you?”
Judging by her cryptic attitude, she would clearly be no enemy, but we had no way of knowing for sure.“I am Xu Hao Ren, she is Mer Xia,” I would reply, looking at Merry who was still struggling to carry LeiLei on her back. “Our friend is Lei Zhao, she’s gravely injured and has done a soul transfer…”
“A WHAT?!” she let out with a yell, “How did you guys… never mind that... it’s not important anymore…” she would reply, biting her finger.
“Listen here, your attack earlier has had quite the impact and if I could feel it from miles away, then so could others,” the demon would imply, “but why are you humans still in the Demonic Grounds and why do I feel demonic energy coming off of you?”
“Long story… I would be glad to share it with you, but I really need to get my friends treated.”
“Right… Right… I’ll help you reach the portal,” but the demon would ask for a form of compensation in return, “in return, you will tell me what happened and why your friend here has done a soul transfer of all things.”
“T-Thank you,” I would reply, attempting to help Mer Xia with carrying Lei’s body, which would initially fail due to her refusing to let go.”Let me help… you’re wounded too.”
The demon would sigh and with a flick of her hand she would teleport Lei’s body on her back.
“We really don’t have time, mister Xu,” she would say with a worried tone, “grab your friend and let’s go.”
A few minutes later, we would find out that the ram-horned demon I had earlier seen at the Red Parade and the one helping us reach the portal, were one and the same.
“My name is Avrora Woxar, you’re lucky I’m the first one to find you, after that silly display of energy.”
“Right… you did say something about others reacting to my outburst of energy…”, I would reply, after checking on Mer Xia who was now sleeping on my back.
“We have three days to reach the portal, you’re lucky I’ve found you when I did, a day or two later and you would’ve been stuck here,” Avrora would remark, looking at me with a sorrowful expression, “You really need to get your friend there treated, I’ll help you with this other one when we reach town.”
“Yeah… but Avrora, who are you?”
“Right, I haven’t introduced myself properly yet since we were in a hurry,” she would mumble with a sigh, “I am a royal from the lower sectors of the Demon Realm,” she would explain enthusiastically, “the current leader of the Half-Demon Goat Clan and the NXPD Sect,” she would continue while pointing at X of her royal badge,”the 10th leader, of the sect to be more precise.”
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She would then follow up with explaining why she was at the Red Parade, delivering slight insight into the ones called “blood demons”, the ones that had attacked us earlier. ”They’re part of the Dark-Red Blood Cult, the Red Parade is something they do in order to gather offerings,” Avrora would continue to explain, “we don’t know yet why they’re doing this, but that’s the reason I was there, I was looking into it and trying to find them out,” she would exhale with a sigh unlike displayed so far, “unfortunately, I didn’t know they could mass infect the locals with their blood magic…”
“Blood magic,” I would ask, shocked from hearing a word I could not fully comprehend,”not blood cultivation?”
“No, blood magic is something different, it involves corrupt ki, you should look for me at the NXPD Academy so I can explain further, it’s complicated…”
“Corrupt ki… another foreign word to me…”
As our talk would come to an end, so too would our rush towards the nearest town, a place with tall and intricate buildings unlike I’d ever seen.
“Avrora Woxar, I come with guests,” she would say at the local inn while showing off her badge to the innkeeper. “Come Xu, follow me into our room”
“Right!”
“Put her down, gently,” she would remark pointing at Mer Xia, “we’ll treat her first since her soul is extremely important for saving Lei Zhao.”
“Can you save them?”, I would ask, but she would ignore me as she would begin talking words in a language unheard to my ears so far, which would give off ominous feeling.
“Don’t worry, this is an incantation,” she would say as she would poke Mer Xia’s abdomen with her nail, penetrating her flesh, “I will act as a medium and attempt to transfer the essence of Lei Zhao’s soul back to her original body, however…” she would add,” I do not know if and when she will wake up,” with that said, she would do the same to Lei’s body and the transfer would begin.
“Ugh, it’s been too long since the soul transfer has been finished, I could only transfer a small part back,” she would sigh in anger, “we should’ve come here faster, I don’t know if she’s ever going to wake up at this point.”
“W- What do you mean?”
“She’s been in this state for far too long for me to be able to do this alone, we’ll have to put her body into a magical induced stasis, you’ll have to help me by holding her heart from moving, just a second should be enough.”
“You want me… to stop her heart from beating? How in the hell am I even supposed to do that without killing her off permanently!?”, I would ask in anger, anxiety taking over as there was no sure way of knowing if LeiLei would make it out alive.
“Fuck… how about this? I’ll inject my energy into her core and try to stabilize her heart… will that work?”
With a hand on Mer Xia’s thorax, she would begin injecting her yellow energy, seeming healing her. “There, that should do it for this one, let’s hurry up, we don’t have time.”
“Damn it…”
And thus, with both my palms placed on Lei’s chest, I would pour all of my remaining energy into it, momentarily causing her heart to stop beating, “There, that’s it, hold it steady,” with another incantation she would envelop my energy with something that I could only describe as a purple magic seal with a pentagram in the middle, and the rest of her body would begin to float. Shortly after, Lei’s body would be enveloped by a white-yellowish aura, giving off a slight vibe of divinity unlike anything I’ve felt in my current reincarnation.
“There, that should do it for now, I’ve stopped her body from decomposing and her heart should be fine, but you will have to allow her to remain in my care for the time being.”
“Ugh… Mer Xia’s not going to be happy about this…” I would reply, looking at her sleeping on the bed besides us.
“I’ll take care of that, you should go into the center of town and talk to a guy named Qiavik Stramus, you’ll know when you see it, he’ll teleport the two of you in front of the portal when you’re ready, tell him Avrora sent you.”
“Right, Qiavik, got it.”
And so I would go and make sure we could leave this realm, but while I was leaving the room, I could not take my mind off of LeiLei. “How am I supposed to fix this? I will have to return to the Demon Realm again…” and while this would be something obvious, a question would remain, “How the heck am I going to come back here without having to wait for another 15 years?!”
Minutes later I would arrive at the entrance to a building right in the middle of town, a huge sign hanged in the upper right corner of the door, “Qiavik’s Arcanum Apothecary, this has to be it.” Upon entering the door, I would scan the inside for signs of this person, and soon enough, a cyan-haired man with pointy ears and extremely beautiful blue eyes would meed my gaze with an emotionless stare. His brown clothes simple, but covered by a robe with a hint of nobility, he would not exude an air of any ordinary merchant.
“Hello, this is Qiavik Stramus, how may I help you?” he would ask in a soft voice from behind his table, reading a book while shaking a glass of blue liquid.
“Y-Yes, hi, Avrora sent me here,” I would reply while looking at the array of potions and magical items that were covering the shelves all around him,” she said you could help with a teleport situation.”
“Ah, I see, allow me a few moments to finish this concoction and I shall be right with you,” he would reply, mumbling soon after, “You owe me big time your highness,” while continuously shaking his glass and returning to read his book.
After the passing of a couple of minutes of me staring through the shop, he would pack some paper into a brown leather bag, “Come now, let us meet her highness Avrora,” he would pat my shoulder while showing me outside, ”and please don’t stumble over anything on your way out, you look quite tired.”
Halfway through town, Avrora would meet us, “I see you’ve found Qiavik, don’t worry about Mer Xia, I’ve explained everything to her.”
“Your highness Avrora, might I ask why you need me to teleport our friend here,” Qiavik would ask, “you know how expensive these scrolls are, you owe me another favor."
“Yes-yes, I know, but who told you that you’d be only teleporting one person,” she would reply hinting with her fingers that he would need to teleport not one but four different people, and in two separate directions to add on top.
“You cannot be serious, milady, that would require the use of two teleportation scrolls and a magic circle,” Qiavik would reply in frustration.
“Wait... scrolls, magic circle?” I would ask while looking at the two, albeit somewhat confused.
“Shush now, let the nobles talk,” she would stop me from pestering them further by gently applying pressure on my lips with her index finger, “you shall be handsomely compensated for your troubles, Qiavik.”
Minutes after they would finish their affairs, we would return to Mer Xia at the inn.
“Xu, you’d better fix this,” her words sharp as a knife cutting into my heart, accompanied by a sorrowful stare.
“Yeah…”, would be the only thing I could mutter in shame and disappointment with myself, “let’s go home for now.”
The demon known as Qiavik Stramus would then proceed to inscribe onto the floor of the room, a black magic circle, made from items only found in the Demon Realm, followed by carefully placing the two teleportation scrolls on each side, inside the circle.
“You all need to suppress your energies for the teleportation to commence, this will feel weird, but please trust the process,” he would instruct as the magic circle and both seals on the scrolls would begin to glow purple.
Soon after, our bodies would begin to disperse into thin air, but not before Avrora Woxar’s final words and gift, “You better use this scroll and come find me if you manage to get a lead on anything that’s about soul transfer.”
Seconds later, I would find myself with Mer Xia holding my arm as if she were afraid, in front of the portal to the Demonic Grounds, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, let’s go home, I need some time to think.” She would announce, both mental and physical exhaustion weighing heavy on her.
With this said we would walk through the portal, back to the human world, back to our homes, but not before my ring would display a surge of red electricity and a sting in my arm that would cut my lightning cultivation off for an unknown amount of time,
“W- what the hell is going on!?”