Chapter 26: Chapter 24: Mark of the Beast

I was at the corner of the hallway leading to the cave. Watching without being watched, seeing without being seen. In this room, the tiny Ega was standing immobile in front of a snake. And beside the snake, a big glowy thing that seemed to be the source of the light. A ball wide enough to hide the gigantic snake.

A gigantic and majestic snake, it looked like a dragon without feet, a dragon without wings.

Is it… a wyrm?

While Ega was white, and tiny, the opposing creature had scales of a deep black, a black speckled with white. Gazing at it was like losing oneself in the immensity of space.

Are they talking?

This view was epic, if not a tad boring.

I just sat contemplating what was happening. I didn’t dare intrude in the area for fear of messing with forces I shouldn’t.

A few minutes passed like that. While I was all angsty about finding the mana metal as it was now, I also knew there was absolutely no way in the current circumstance to do anything about it. Also, I was tired, so it didn’t take long for me to nod off.

When I woke up, two shining, purple jewels looked at me with intensity.

[‘So little brat, slept well?’]

“Arg.. oh it’s you,” I said with a yawn, losing a battle with the sleepiness.

[What? You are not afraid?]

“Should I be? You would have eaten me by now if that’s what you wanted.”

[... Wow. Are you really a kid?]

I stared into his eyes, losing myself in them.

[Anyhow, her highness there told me of the circumstances that led to you traveling here, so consider yourself lucky, I won’t eat you... not today at least.]

“Uh?” I asked, “Then what do you want?”

[She sent me to do what she couldn’t...]

As soon as he finished saying these words, a dark purple mist rose from the ground and surrounded us. A mist as deep a purple than the purple of its eyes. The mystique of this scene, me helplessly staring into the terrifying but oddly familiar eyes of this titanic snake, left me in awe. From the mist, a plethora a smaller black snakes erupted and covered my skin, slithering on without a sound.

Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, this multiple of slithering snakes slithered out of my body into the air and disappeared into the purple mist. Soon enough, there wasn’t a trace of the weird phenomenon that had just occurred. None except a mysterious emblem that had appeared on my left hand.

[‘This won’t grant you power, but with this you’ll be able to carry around my universal pressure. It is unusable as an offensive move, but as an intimidation nothing trumps it, with this no wild beast should be able to approach you, unless they are of a higher order than me, which is... unlikely. I would advise against ever using it beyond that though.’] he said with a snicker.

I heard in my head from a voice that seemed proud.

[Now take that stone and screw off. If we meet again, I’ll eat you.]

“Wait, what about Ega?”

[‘She told you her name? Well, yet again..]

Its head moved as if to think, before he continued, [she doesn’t belong here, so I will make sure she gets home safely. Now screw off!’’]

“Wait! Can’t I at least—“

My words were sunk, crashed into the ground. My legs toppled, and my lungs caved. I couldn’t even breathe.

‘Uni-versal pressure?’

[‘You!’]

As he spoke, the surrounding pressure increased. I couldn’t hear anything from my ears, as if there was no sound to be heard, as if it too was being crashed along behind me. My chest was painful, so painful I couldn’t breathe, and my closed eyes felt as if they were about to be pulled out of their sockets.

We weren’t even on the same playing field.

[Are you brave or just totally stupid? I told you twice now, and I hate having to repeat myself, SCREW—’]

Then from behind him, as if ignoring this whole environment and somehow reaching my ears, a gentle voice spoke.

“What are you doing?”

The pressure that was crushing my face into the ground subsided.

As I lifted my head in the direction from where the voice was coming, a naked girl — not much older — than me with white air and red eyes was looking at us.

Her cute bubbly features making her charming.

She seemed to be mentally arguing with the black snake and winning.

Ega?

After a few minutes, the gigantic snake slithered around, its colossal posture seeming smaller now. It was as if he was soiled from being reprimanded.

But my mind was caught on something else. A girl? A human girl?

“Hey,” Ega said with a soft smile.

“Oh, hey.” My heart fluttered.

Looking at her from closer, she was slightly taller than me, but her bubbly features that would have made everyone else look infantile somehow made her look dignified. I was entranced. I stared for longer than appropriate — with a dumb grin on my face — and instantly regretted it.

She sized me up and down and then simply chuckled.

“Wh—” I followed her line of sight and realized what was going on; my face became a tomato.

I crouched, wishing to hide in the ground. That being impossible, I rolled myself into a ball; hiding my whole body from the embarrassment.

A beautiful laugh resounded in the cavern.

“I suppose you are that age, and maybe,“ — she looked at herself — “we are not helping.”

I didn’t quite understand what she meant, but I blushed even harder.

“Anyhow, we had sworn to grant you a wish; but could not do so. As a first step, the seal big black snake left you should be useful to you, as for us.”

“Renga, could you fetch me a sword?” she said.

It looked at her, hissing as if offended by something.

She looked back with stern eyes, as if asking what was wrong. She didn’t look like a kid — no, she did, but she didn’t look like any old kid.

The snake looked away, still hissing.

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Woah.

“Do you have a sword I can use?” she repeated.

Now it looked back, its purple eyes glistening, his earlier hiss sounding more plaintive than threatening.

She silently stared, the same reprobatory look on her face.

Renga bowed his head in defeat and turned its back to us, then his whole body contracted as if he was vomiting something.

A sword.

Clearly it had been a beautiful sword, but his stomach’s juice had mercilessly marred its kingly appearance, making it look like an amber swiss cheese.

“This will have to do.” Ega said as she looked at the sword.

“This will have to do for what?” I asked uncertain, what she was aiming at.

She then brought the sword with a dignified arc and started speaking.

“Usually, your body would rupture if you were to take two emblems at once. After all, one can not swear loyalty to two masters and serve both well— “

“W-w-wait, serve? Swear loyalty? What is that about?”

She chuckled, “this emblem on your right arm is a regalia, and proof you now belong to Renga’s family.”

“Renga’s what… w-w-wait, I didn’t agree to this!”

“Don’t worry, I ordered him to. He won’t hurt you.” She said, a radiant smile on her face, disarming any objections I could have had.

When she saw I was satisfied with the answer, probably because I was smiling inappropriately, she continued, making the sword fly all the way above to my right shoulder, to the next, before coming back and stopping it right over my head, stopping it right before it split it.

“For having just lost your life, you shall gain another. This queen dubs you a Nephilim.”

“A n— “ I said as Ragna hissed violently, making itself big.

“And by the powers that I wield waive the two masters’ penalty.”

As she said so, let the sword touch my head. Instead of feeling cold or threatening, it felt warm and comforting.

Soon.

Similar to what had happened with Ragna, a red mist arose from the ground. This mist smelled like peach and roses and from its depth jumped a plethora of small white snakes. While Ragna’s felt mystique, as if I was being tested for my worthiness; this felt more playful. These snakes slithered on my skin with a naive goodness and somehow I knew they would do me no harm.

Soon enough, as the black snakes did, they jumped back into the red mist, and no trace from what had just happened was left but a weird emblem on my right hand.

“This is not the power you seek, but this seal should be able to save your life. It should have enough power for one, us. With this, we consider our debts repaid.”

Ragna looked at Ega with eyes seething; purple stars glowing with anger.

“Are you complaining about my decision?”

“What’s a Nephilim?”

“Just a title.”

“A title?”

“Yes, just a title.”

Her smile perked up. “If one day you reach us, you’ll know.”

As she said these words, she stepped away from me, leaving me with no time to ask for questions.

I stepped closer reflexively, trying to grab her hand; I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want her to go.

[‘You vile human, how dare you.’]

My legs toppled again, and I stayed on the ground as if paralyzed. Still, I fought to lift my head, to look at her go, scrambling my head to make sense of this situation.

She is leaving?

She is human?

But before?

And that seal?

Nephilim… Loyalty?

The black snake abhorred me, and Ega seemed in a hurry to leave.

“Wait… at least, tell me who…” I said, confused, struggling to come to terms with what was happening, struggling to string words together under this incredible pressure.

“We are Ega,” she said with a sweet smile.

“Goodbye Helmet. may you find the power you seek.”

“Wa —“

As she said that, she closed her eyes and touched the coprolithium, the almost totality of it disappeared as she did. This scene looked almost ridiculously bland compared to the mystique from earlier. No fancy theatrics, no shine of light, no sweet smell.

She just disappeared; she was gone.

There were only two souls left in this room. The black snake looked at me with its purple eyes, as if contemplating whether to kill me. And then he, too, disappeared from the room through the wall, leaving no trace behind him.

The bright room that was so bright that it looked like the outside had grown noticeably dim, as if it was lighted by an oil lamp. A metal piece the size of my fist was left in this vast room, and I was all alone again.

“Well, at least I got what I came for,” I said, feeling lost.

I got 2 days left, uh…

I shook my head as I forced myself to stand on unsteady legs.

I’ll deal with those feelings later. Priority is to not be left for dead.

I stretched my body, stretching so I could become limber like a doe and then, with all my strength, I sprinted. While I didn’t have a map anymore, still something felt different about the path this time, something that I couldn’t put my thumb on was bothering me. Still, I had memorized the path, and so I ran as fast as I could. Multiple stops were taken on the way back. I didn’t realize at the time that it would have been much more efficient for me to run at a slower pace with fewer breaks than to sprint, stop, and sprint; but at that moment, all I cared about was arriving at my destination.

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