“What did you do?” Warumasa demands.

  “Nothing! What are you blaming me for now?” Apherward shouts back.

  “Look at the girl! Do you see what your spell has done! You and your performance enhancing magic!”

  Ren

  Level 10 Samurai

  Strength: 21

  Magic: 27

  Agility: 15

  Vitality: 17

  Magic Capacity: Low

  Titles: Blue Pine’s Favorite Adventurer

  Skills:

  Swordsmanship Level 3

  Housekeeping Level 1

  Netami Style

  Netami Style: Form 1: Flash

  Netami Style Form 2: Swallow Dive

  Netami Style Form 3: Helm Splitter

  Netami Style Form 4: Blade Wave

  Martial Arts Level 2

  Netami Style Form 5: Horizon

  Spells:

  Ice Bolt Level 2

  Fireball Level 1

  Haste Level 1

  Raise Zombie Level 1

  Stone Wall Level 2

  Water Arrow Level 2

  Blind Level 2

  Locate Location Level 1

  Project Mind Level 1

  Magic Soft Fall Level 2

  Chain Lightning Level 1

  Basic Barrier Level 2

  Whisper Sanctum Level 1

  Magic Sense Level 2

  Invisibility Level 1

  Magic Lock Level 1

  Magic Impact Level 3

  Magic Pierce Level 2

  Status: Injured

  Left Hand Bruised Severity 2 Bandaged

  Right Shoulder Cut Severity 3 Bandaged

  Left Ankle Twisted Severity 3

  Head Scrape Severity 1

  Torso Bruise Severity 2

  Torso Scrape Severity 1

  Left Arm Scrape Severity 1

  Left Leg Scrape Severity 2

  Left Leg Bruise Severity 1

  “You’re blaming all of that on me?” Apherward says.

  “Yes! I knew you and your spells were bad for the girl!” Warumasa yelled as a concerned demon.

  “Oh, bullshit! Plenty of kids are using these spells. And the haste spell has been safe to use since the dawn of mankind! In fact, most people swear by it!”

  “And look where it got the girl! She hurt herself and now a bunch of men want to kill her! THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOU AND YOUR SPELLS!!!”

  “OH, LIKE YOU AND YOUR THIRST FOR BLOOD HAVE INTRODUCED HER TO AMIABLE PEOPLE!!!”

  “YOU KNOW, I DON’T CARE FOR HOW YOU TREAT MY GIRL!!!”

  “SHE’S MY GIRL TOO, ASSHOLE!!!”

  Ren was incapable of standing. Her ankle was twisted and after an impact she skid across the floor and gained a number of scrapes and bruises. They aren’t life threatening, and the voices in her head couldn’t feel any of the pain, but they still posed various problems. Parnidot stood with his once clean and pristine armor. Now it is scuffed, bent and dirty. Mackamer was there too, but he was less impressively dressed to begin with.

  “This brat!” Parnidot says. “I remember you! I never forget anyone who disrespected me and our god!”

  “Of all the things to interrupt, you choose this.” Mackamer picks himself off the floor and dusts himself off. “When we first met, I didn’t think you had a hero complex, but I should’ve known that young folk like you trying to be an adventurer all have hero complexes.”

  Having said their peace, Parnidot begins to channel divine energy into a sword, and Mackamer began chugging a potion off his utility belt. Ren scrambles to sheathe her sword and use her hands to go into a hand stand. Parnidot’s sword erupts into divine light and arcs towards Ren. Mackamer pulls the now empty bottle from his lips and fire shoots out of his mouth and towards Ren.

  “Divine Smite!”

  Before either could find their mark, Ren pushes off her hands to jump off her hand stand. She handily dodges both attacks by backing away. Unfortunately, her landing failed spectacularly. Ren lands on her back carried by her own body weight and momentum from her hand standing leap.

  Status Injured

  Torso Bruise Severity 2

  Though she avoided a magical sword strike and a breath of fire, she ended up hurting herself.

  “You wasted a bottle of your demon piss for a miss.” Parnidot sneered.

  “What is your problem?” Mackamer laced his words with his frustration. “I don’t have a problem with you. Why are you giving me this attitude?”

  “You sent a demon after me.” Parnidot says bluntly.

  “No! I have sent multiple demons to attack the Albrinter family!”

  “You colluded with more than one demon?”

  Parnidot thrusted his shield into Mackamer’s head, leaving him with a cut brow and bleeding nose.

  “Augh! Shit!” Mackamer recoils in pain.

  Mackamer backs away from Parnidot. Blood begins to spill from Mackamer’s brow. A sizzling is heard and black smoke lightly seeps from the wound on his brow. When Parnidot sees this, he chuckles.

  “What are you, a demonic balloon?" Parnidot says.

  Mackamer doesn’t verbally respond. Instead he quickly pulls a tin from his utility belt. Inside is a cream or salve that he quickly rubs onto his bleeding wound. Soon enough, the wound stops smoking and bleeding.

  “Damn, blind waste of space.” Mackamer stows the tin again and pulls out a pouch. “Fine! You want to get in my way, I’ll use something I was saving for the Albrinter brats.”

  Ren picks herself off the floor as an explosion erupts from where Mackamer and Parnidot are fighting. She is peppered in various injuries and lacks the time to dress them. She can still move around, but she has a twisted ankle and can’t stand on it, or at least can’t stand on it well. Despite this, Ren has still not given up, or more accurately the voices in her head haven’t given up. Ren sits up and looks at her quest targets. At some point, Mackamer had tossed a pouch of black powder and ignited it, causing an explosion. Now he is dropping a crystalline rock into a bottle of liquid. The bottle then spews out some kind of foam bubbles. Parnidot’s shield blocked most of it, and he rushed Mackamer to deliver a sword blow backed by a skill.

  “Holy Slash!”

  Divine light cut through the strange chemical mess of foam. The foam then sparkled with strange purple light and purple fire surrounded Parnidot.

  “What is this?” Parnidot demanded.

  “It’s a chemical fire. One that burns more violently than you will ever know.” Mackamer answered with a smile.

  “No! It’s more than that.” Parnidot says. “This is demonic in origin!”

  “Yeah so what?” Mackamer spat back. “Don’t you realize it? With demonic power, you can achieve where the gods fail.”

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  Parnidot furrows a brow and gives him a confused look.

  “I got a lot of favor because demons were running amok in the streets in the past octant.”

  “So you should be thanking me!”

  At those words, Parnidot channeled divine power through his shield. A divine light shot out like a curtain. This curtain snuffed out the strange purple fire that had surrounded Parnidot.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Parnidot speaks mockingly. “Please, continue. You were saying something about the gods failing or something of the sort.”

  “Cheeky bitch.” Mackamer spits back.

  Mackamer prepares a pouch from his utility belt. Parnidot tries to rush in while he is busy preparing his next trick. Having enough of being side lined, Ren ties her sword, Warumasa, to it’s scabbard. She then weakly stands using the sword scabbard as a walking stick. She points her hand at the dueling pair and begins to cast a spell.

  “Water Arrow.”

  Two arrows of water lance out towards Mackamer and Parnidot. As some strange alchemical reaction makes a strange purple crystal grow and chase Parnidot, magically conjured water shoots out and hits the both of them. Water cuts into them by varying degrees. Parnidot is struck in the chest, and the armor dents, but the man himself is unharmed. Mackamer is struck in the stomach. Water and blood seeps out of the wound, until smoke begins to seep out of it too. Not only that, but parts of his arm and face begin to emit smoke and a sizzling sound. Parnidot was mad that Ren had rejoined the fight, but his smoking opponent was a more interesting topic.

  “I was kidding about the balloon thing. Just what are you?”

  “That is none of your concern.”

  “You introduce demons into town and claim that you are none of my concern.”

  “YES!!! I’VE TOLD YOU ALL TIME AND TIME AGAIN! THIS IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM! I KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU! I KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR THE WORLD!!!”

  “Is that what you think? That, you are above the gods?”

  “Yes, for fuck’s sake. Yes! They’ve been-”

  Before he could resume his dissertation, more water stabs into Mackamer. The man yelps in pain as the water somehow sparks a fire on his chest and shoulder. Both men look to Ren again.

  “Magic Pierce.”

  Ren points at Parnidot this time and a beam of light lances out and a spell punches through his armor this time. Parnidot scrambles to bring his shield up. When Ren next casts her spell, the beam bounces off the shield. Mackamer continues to burn from his spontaneous fire. Mackamer goes back into his utility belt and he opens a familiar looking tin and begins to mash his wounds with the cream. As he does, the fire and smoke begins to die down.

  “Oh my gods!” Warumasa cried out as if he were facepalming himself. “Lenard- the guy! Way back when I was still serving in the ritual with Trashan and the others. He used his dying breath to tell us Mackamer was a vampire. We just forgot about it because he stood in the sunlight for a bit.

  “I- I don’t know who this Lenard man is.” Apherward says. “Mackamer is indeed standing in the morning sun. He’s mostly unharmed.”

  “Yeah, but that salve stuff he keeps rubbing on himself. What if that’s his secret to, you know, not burning in the sun? And the water is washing off the cream.”

  “I mean, if you want, I can impart a bigger water spell onto the girl.”

  “Please do. I think we’re going to give him a good wash and he will burst into flames as a vampire should.”

  Ren learned Water Wave Level 1.

  Spell Level Up

  Water Wave Level 1 -> Level 2. Level capacity has been met. Level up to increase level capacity.

  “Water Wave.”

  Standing on one leg and holding herself up with a sheathed katana, Ren points her hand at both Mackamer and Parnidot. A wave of water is conjured at her feet and rushes at the both of them. The water impacting them is not too great. They only get swept off their feet from the rushing wave. The spell isn’t too impactful by itself. However, they are both soaked, Mackamer’s tin is drenched in water and he bursts into fire despite being drenched in water.

  “Eugh! Yeagh!!!” Mackamer screeches.

  He clamors for his tin of salve, but it is being washed away by the water. Both the tin and the salve inside are swiftly becoming unrecoverable as they wash away in the water. Parnidot was still reeling from being shot by magic, but his problem was less severe than being on fire despite being soaked in water.

  “I see now that I was wrong about a great many things.” Parnidot says. “I was too focused on a fool. Where my problems lie is in a hidden genius.”

  He stared down Ren as another beam of magic came for him. He brings up his shield and the spell bounces off harmlessly. Ren returns Parnidot’s stare, but there was no inflection or emotion in her eyes.

  “Cool.” Ren says as a response.

  Parnidot raises his shield skyward.

  “Elofraye Shield of Divine Dominance! I beseech you! Lend me your power to strike down evil!”

  Divine light begins to descend from the sky. A blinding light begins to coat Parnidot. Mackamer is scrambling whilst on fire. He pulls at his right sleeve. A magic circle tattooed to his wrist remains dormant for the moment. He bares his fangs and bites his own wrist and tears at it. Blood erupts from his wrist and he raises his fist upward.

  “I gave you all a chance! A chance to be saved. To be better! I have found the answer to evolution! For all mankind to ascend! I HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER TO THE SUN! I HAVE FOUND AN ANSWER TO THE THIRST FOR BLOOD! I HAVE THE ANSWER!!!”

  Instead of falling and flowing downward, his blood rises into the sky. The blood forms a magic circle above his head like a halo. An eerie light shoots up into the sky. A tearing sound rips through the sky and it looks as though a knife had torn a hole in the sky. It then seems like the sky is bleeding.

  To Ren’s left, great divine light forms glistening armor made of light around Parnidot. To her right, a vampire made the sky bleed and blood rained down on him like a waterfall and put out the combusting vampire. Ren weakly stands as two grand powers stand opposed to her. Her face is as stiff as a stone

  “Wow.” Ren says.

  “What is that?” Apherward speaks with astonishment.

  “Eugh, what is that?” Warumasa speaks with disgust.

  “It’s… it’s magic. Magic I do not know.”

  “Oh, goodie. Magic to make some stale blood… wait… this isn’t blood. It’s like… blood sea water. Eugh. It’s the farthest thing from fresh blood.”

  “I must know!”

  “What?”

  “I must know. This spell or ritual, I must know it!”

  “That’s what you’re into?”

  “YES!!! Magic is the greatest force the mind can master, AND MASTER IT I SHALL!!! I AM APHERWARD! MOTE OF DARK SECRETS!!!”

  “Look, if I get to stab them, I’m fine.”

  “You demonic shit head!”

  “What in the world? Where is this coming from?”

  “You’re a demon of envy! You should be envious! That legendary ass shield was on a pedestal! Don’t you want to humble the shit out of that thing! YOU SHOULD BE TRYING TO TEAR THAT THING DOWN A PEG!!!”

  “So what? What’s a fancy pedestal got to do with anything?”

  “I hear that Luxcaliber you were so jealous of likes that shield. Whatever it’s name is.”

  “Okay, I know you’re just baiting me, but I do still want to bask in some blood.”

  “Good! Channel my magic!”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Use my dark knowledge. Be enveloped by magic. See how the divine likes it. See how the vampiric likes it. We will combine your martial prowess and form with my knowledge and magic. Then, I will pull the unknown from that vampire. You will sink your blade into that zealot. Our combined power will carve a path that the world has not yet seen.”

  “Really? Fine then, wizard. Perform your magics, but follow my lead.”

  “Let all quake in the grandeur of our girl!”

  Mona Hazel was staring up at the sky. A pillar of light shoots upward. A tear in the sky drips like a waterfall of blood.

  “What is that?” she cries out.

  She is covered in various wounds, but can move decently well now that most of her injuries were dressed. She was with the demon Felloice. They both stared up at the sky. Felloice looks around in a panic.

  “A call!” Felloice says. “A call has been made! The master of the pact is trying to summon me to his side.”

  “What does that mean?” Mona asks.

  “The boss is there! The vampire Daniel Mackamer is calling us.”

  “A- uh! I completely forgot his first name was Daniel. Gods, damn stupid. Anyway, I need to get over there.”

  “I- I think I need to stay away from there. I might end up contributing to the ritual circle with my proximity.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Mackamer is calling us in. He’s invoking a blood price to pay us demons off for the power promised by the pact.”

  “I- uhh.. Wait, I don’t get it. Why aren’t you helping?”

  “Mackamer puts us on a leash and that leash siphons power from us to power him up. If I stay away, he won’t cash in on my power.”

  “O-okay.”

  Mona shrugs her shoulders and prepares to leap onto a nearby rooftop. Before she can, Felloice stops her.

  “Hey! Uhmm… As someone who is currently manifested, I don’t need to answer the call. I’m supposed to, but the ritual circle is already out of whack and missing the demon of envy for the full set. So I seem to be outside of the call’s control. But… you know… Praisegg… She isn’t manifested right now so… she’ll probably be there.”

  Mona gives her a long hard look.

  “I’m sorry to say, but I have no idea what I can do about her.”

  Felloice uncomfortably rubs her arm.

  “Right.”

  Mona leaps onto a roof and rushes off.

  She arrives to see the foot of the pillar of light and falling blood. There the familiar sight of Mackamer, although he is wearing some light armor and with a belt full of strange sacks, pouches and bags. There’s also Parnidot. He’s in armor and he looks like as much of an asshole as he did when a crimewave was this town’s biggest problem.

  In the face of a shining paladin and a vampire being submerged in blood, Ren unties the knot keeping her sword in it’s scabbard. She draws her blade. She can’t take any fighting stance with her ankle twisted, but she weakly kneels on her left knee. Ren taps on Apherward, the book at her hip held by a chain. From it, she pulls some kind of magic power from the tome. She then runs her hand along the length of her sword, Warumasa. A red light begins to emit from the blade almost like wisps or ghosts. She raises her sword above her head.

  “Ren!” Mona shouts.

  Mona begins to rush for Ren. She leaps off the roof of a building. As she descends, something strange happens. Color begins to drain. Most of the world’s color begins to darken and lighten until they are white, black or a shade of gray. Save for one color. Each color was being drained from the world except the color red. The blood dripping from the sky pooled onto the ground and flooded the streets. Not too deep. The flood of blood didn't even come up to anyone’s ankles. Just off to the side, Ren was raising her sword, now enveloped by a magic that shines with a vibrant light. This light easily matches the now colorless light of parnidot, and finds a deeper but brighter red than Mackamer’s blood from the sky.

  “What the hells?” Mona goes wide eyed at Ren’s display of power. “Ren? What are you doing?”

  Ren either ignored Mona or did not hear her. In either case, it didn’t stop what she was about to do.

  “Fate has ordained your fall.” Ren says. “Fate’s swallow will snatch away your ambitions.”

  The arcing magic forms a blade that reaches the sky. Ren begins to stand. Her ankle struggles to support her weight while she does, but she forces it to support a sloppy sword stance. She brings it down the blade of grand magic. The blade descends toward Parnidot. The man looks up in a panic and brings his holy artifact up to protect him. A holy sigil rises up and shines in dull colorless light against the encroaching blade of red. Like a brush dipped in red paint, it carves across the canvas to break the purity of a blank canvas. The divine sigil shatters like glass when the blade reaches it’s surface. It wasn’t long until the blade clashed against Elofraye Shield of Divine Dominance. It was a great and powerful artifact. Forged by a master blacksmith and blessed by innumerable gods. It stood up to all unholy powers brought against it for the duration of human history. It’s story swiftly ends as the colorless shield was split in half by the blade or red energy. Parnidot was cut in half by the blade too, but it’s just a simple cut from shoulder to hip. A much less impressive achievement than the shield he bore.

  Ren then tries to arc the blade upward. She shifts her weight, and her ankle gives way to the weight she shifts. Even then, she arcs the blade upward. Up at Mackamer. The man standing beneath a waterfall of strange blood grits his teeth and braces himself for the blade. No grand magic or supreme skill to protect him. Just his fortitude as a vampire backed by demonic power. Even if he were cut, as a vampire he would regenerate. The blade cuts up. The brush like stroke was sloppy, but crossed up at him. Mackamer’s arm is cut off and the blade crosses over his eye. He had lost his right arm and right eye to Ren. The blade kept rising until it found that wound in the sky that bled. The brush stroke of Ren’s blade smeared the tear in the sky. The blade had painted over the hole in the sky and smeared over it.

  Dozens of men fighting on Parnidot and Mackamer’s side sees Ren use some impossibly large scale spell or skill. When they turn to see Ren, the world’s color had drained. Her red hair flowed and was cast back as she cut down both Parnidot and Mackamer. The men who still haven’t been killed began to stammer backwards.

  “That’s Ren!”

  “Ren?!?!”

  “Ren the Red!”

  “It’s Ren the Red!”

  Those who were still fighting began to run. After they turn away, the blade’s magic had dissipated. The hole in the sky dripping with blood closed. The pillar of light vanished soon after. The streets soon filled with color outside of red. Parnidot had been bisected and was as dead as any man who was cut in half. Mackamer was reeling from the pain of losing an eye and an arm. Then the waterfall of blood that had stopped him from bursting into flames stops coating him. He then bursts into flames and begins to run off in a panic with the speed of a vampire. His right arm had a tattoo on the wrist. As the sun touches it, the severed arm also bursts into flames. The demonic ritual circle in the form of a tattoo begins to burn away. Ren had fallen as she swung up. She had collapsed to the floor and remained unmoving.

  “Ren!” Mona rushed over to her.

  As she does, the blood pool splashes as she stepped. The blood splashed onto one of Mona’s various wounds. She felt a sting of pain.

  “Ah! Shit!” Mona looks at the blood. “Is this blood or sea water?”

  Mona sniffed the air. She did find that it smelled like a strange mix of sea water and blood. Her wounds also stung like it was sea water too. Mona put this strange substance from her mind. She rushed to Ren. She pulled her out of the pool and looked Ren over. She was covered in scrapes and bruises. Mona pressed her ear against Ren’s chest and thankfully heard her breath. Mona lifted Ren up and ran off to the Albrinter rearguard.

  A man with black hair, light skin and red eyes looks up at the sky over Blue Pine town. He was young. Only 21 years old. He wore a fine dress shirt and rode atop a horse. He and an order of knights look up as the sky was bleeding and a pillar of light shot up. Then they saw color drain from the town and the sky above it. Soon after that, a giant red pillar of wispy magic cut down the pillar and then cut up at the bleeding sky.

  “What the fuck?” the well dressed man whispers under his breath.

  “Chancellor! Chancellor Luard Luminite!” a knight shouts as his horse rides up next to him. “Okay! I was wrong. Those nuns and priests who begged for our help were serious. Yell at me all you want later. We have to go help.”

  The man who was called Luard Luminite nods his head.

  “Of all the times for your grandmaster to get sick.” Luard says. “Where is the nun who accompanied us?”

  “Right here!” a knight riding his horse with a nun rushes up.

  “M’lord. That wasn’t there when Mona got me out of town.” the nun says.

  “I figured. Once we get inside, guide us! To the temple! To Parnidot! Everything and everyone.” Luard says.

  “Of course.” the nun nods.

  The chancellor and the knights accompanying him begin to ride in a gallop towards Blue Pine town.