Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) (16 page)

“All clear,” he declared. The three of them crept out of the basement and up through the hatch. Aura led the way, sword drawn and alert. As soon as Nora was out she rushed upstairs to the office.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he said.

“To make sure my work is alright!” Nora replied, storming up the stairs.

“Wait, we should stay together!” Aura said. Nora reached the top of the stairs and entered her father’s office. Everything was exactly how she’d left it. She approached her canvas, the board that covered the broken window. She’d hung a blanket over it so no one could see. In the dim lighting she could just make out a shape moving across the blanket. She heard a loud
SQUEAK
and the figure jumped at her.

Nora screamed as the rat demon latched onto her hair. Aura was at the door to the office and rushed in. He took hold of the demon with his gauntlet hand and urged his sister to lean down. With his free hand, he held the sword’s blade up and cut off the strand of hair the demon was latched to. Nora was freed.

“Are you alright?” Aura asked. Nora calmed down and managed to give a weak nod in acknowledgment. A loud cry from Angelica on the factory floor made the kids jump. “Mom!” they both said in horror.

They ran to the balcony and saw their mother below with her back turned to them. She was staring at the far end of the factory by the front door. Walking towards their mother was a…
thing
.

It was a
man-like creature. Its doughy skin was pale white with black stripes that ran all over its body. It had no facial features either. The creature’s head had no face to speak of. Only two small indents could be found where its ears should of been.

“Mom, get up here!” Aura shouted. Angelica turned to run. Before she made it to the stairs, the demon shot its arm forward. The arm stretched like it was made of rubber, all the way across the factory floor and latched on to Angelica’s shoulder.

She screamed as the creature pulled her back. The children shouted, and Aura drew his sword and charged down the stairs. Raising his blade, he slashed downward on the stretched out arm. The blade went through in one swing, severing the arm clean in two. It would not let go of Angelica however, no matter how hard they pulled at it.

“
Useless
!” The demon spoke.

“Stay back!” Aura said “Or I’ll cut you up even more!”

The demon did not stop walking. It bent down and collected the excess length of arm. Aura focused on freeing his mother once again. The monster’s arm had stretched more and wrapped around her legs.

She tripped and fell forward with the demon arm biding her body. Aura took great care to try and cut the demon arm off her. Every time he pressed the blade into the arm it resealed itself together. The flesh started to meld together, and soon she was trapped in a doughy cocoon of demon matter.

“Hang on mom! I’ll stop him!” Aura said. He charged at the demon, sword raised and ready to swing. The demon stopped. Aura plunged his sword into the horrifying creature’s belly. The sword hung there half submerged in the demon, then dropped to the ground.

Aura screamed a war cry and charged forward, weaponless. The boy shot his gauntlet fist forward to punch the demon. His fist sank into the demon’s head with little resistance. Aura shouted in surprise and pulled away, his gauntlet remaining lodged in the creature.

“
Useless
,” the demon said, spitting Aura’s gauntlet to the factory floor. It then started coughing. When it became a violent heaving sound, the demon threw up something furry. It hit the floor in a wad of goo and rolled, coming to a stop at Aura’s feet. The little furball unraveled into another demon like the ones from before. This one had the body of a small dog with another poor man’s head on it.

The demon continued coughing and hacking, and two more fuzzballs rolled out covered in slime. Aura glanced around the room looking for the closest weapon and spotted a spear sitting on a table nearby. He prepared to dodge the smaller demons and leap for the spear, but the creatures had no interest in him. They scattered across the floor, past the boy and up the stairs to the office.

“Hey! Wait! Don’t go up there! Fight me!” Aura shouted. He grabbed the nearby spear and pointed it at the advancing demon.

“
Nora! Get out of there!
”

The monster continued its advance. It was almost at the tip of Aura’s spear when something fiery shot out of the upper office window. The ball of flame hit the floor, joined by two more flaming objects. The flames died out and Aura could see the charred lumps of flesh were the smaller demons. Nora exited the office and leapt the entire staircase, landing between the demon and her brother.

“I’ll handle this!” she said.

“No don’t! It absorbs people!” Aura said.

Nora didn’t attack with her fists. The girl conjured as much flames as she could. She held her hands forward and sprayed the demon with a shower of wildfire. The demon stood still, letting the flames engulf it. It started to sway as it heated up, until its body finally caught fire. The demon wailed and thrashed as it burned.

“You did it!” said Aura. “You’re killing it!”

“What did I tell you?” Nora said, looking back and smiling at her brother.

The demon stopped moving. “
Go
!” it said. A small lump of flesh shot out of the demon’s chest and collided with Nora’s face. The girl screamed in pain and was knocked backwards. Aura ran to her side while the demon stumbled back. Its burning flesh warped and stretched and folded itself inside out to smother the flames.

“
Nora
! Don’t die, Nora!” the boy said, trying to keep his sister awake. “Dad will be here any second now! I promise!”

The demon twisted and warped its body until the flames were no more. The monster looked brand new, like it had never been on fire. As Aura held his sister the demon moved right past them. 

It walked up to the fleshy cocoon that held Angelica and put its foot on the pod. The flesh melded together. Angelica fused with the creature’s body as it grew and wrapped around her. Only her head stayed visible outside the flesh.

Nora was still unresponsive as Aura laid her head down gently on the floor. The boy stared at the lumpy flesh demon with his mother trapped inside of it.

“
Damn you
…” Aura said. He was at the end of his options. Attacking the creature had proved ineffective, and he didn’t doubt the monster would catch him if he ran.

If only I was stronger,
Aura thought.
I need to protect my family!

With his resolution to save his loved ones peaked, Aura felt a jolt of something strange in his right hand. Looking down, he saw bright blue bolts of electricity shooting off his cursed hand. The boy lifted it to his face and inspected it more closely.

Is this… my death touch power?

Aura looked back at his mother. The demon flesh was slowly engulfing her head. Soon she’d be completely absorbed. The boy didn’t have the luxury of time to think it through. He stood and went to the demon.

“Aura…” Nora said weakly, trying to stay conscious. “What are you doing?”

“I can kill it…” the boy said, his right hand shooting off jolts of blue electricity at random. “
With my power
,
I can kill it
!”

“Mom’s in there!” Nora said. The girl found strength to stagger to her feet, but quickly came crashing down. She didn’t let that stop her though, as she crept forward on her knees.

Aura closed his eyes and stretched out his right arm. With his cursed hand still shooting off the blue bolts of newly awakened power, the boy slapped the monster.

The power of death shot through the demon’s flesh, snuffing out whatever life it found in an instant.

Nora approached on her knees, trying to warn her brother against using his power. Her voice was no more than a hoarse whisper as she struggled to stay conscious.

“
Stop… You’ll kill her…
”

Nora kneeled next to her brother, grasping out for his cursed hand. A random bolt from the death touching power leapt from the boy’s hand straight at her face. The girl screamed and fell over, grabbing at her eyes.

“Nora!” cried Aura, dropping his hand to his side, the blue electric power no longer flowing. The boy rushed to his sister. Her face was covered in blood. “I did it Nora, I saved mom!”

Through his sister’s painful moaning, Aura managed to lower her hands away from her bloodstained face. Aura felt a tremor of bile nearly jump out of his throat at the sight of Nora’s injury.

The girl’s eyeballs had melted almost entirely out of her sockets.

“
I can’t see
…” the girl said.

“Nora…” Aura struggled to find words. “
Your eyes
…” The boy diverted his own eyes. He could not stand to look at what he’d done to her. Instead he looked at his mom, hopeful that he would see her awaking soon. What he saw was two souls, one purple and one white, emerging from the puddle of flesh and his mother’s body. The two souls lingered momentarily before fading away from this world.

“
Mom… No
!”

The factory door opened, the sound of thick metal creaking cut through the tragic silence. Amos entered. As soon as he saw his wife and daughter lying on the floor he dashed to them with a frozen lump in his throat.

“What happened here?!”

Aura was sobbing too hard to explain. Amos hovered over his wife’s body, shaking her gently and calling her name. With no response or signs of breathing from her, his attempts at waking his wife stopped. He planted one last kiss on her forehead, and with tears streaming down his face the man turned to his son and daughter.

Nora was covered in blood and unconscious now. Her breathing was becoming weaker and weaker. Amos stepped to her side and brushed his son away.

“I
tried
to save them,” said Aura between sobs. “But there was a demon that could talk and we couldn’t hurt it at all so the only thing I could do was use my power!”

“
I told you never to use that!
” Amos screamed. “You were supposed to stay hidden!”

“I’m sorry!” Aura said with tears streaming down his face.

“I need to get Nora to a medic,” said Amos, bending down and cradling his daughter in his arms. He lifted her up and headed for the door. “Go home,” he told his son. “We’ll talk later.”

“I want to help…”

“
You’ve done enough
!
Now go home
!” With that one last outburst, Amos left Aura alone in the factory. The boy stole one last glance at his dead mother as he collected his metal gauntlet, thrusting it over his cursed hand to cover his shame. He moved toward the exit, following his father’s orders until he remembered the reason they’d even come to the factory in the first place.

Nora’s painting.

The boy climbed the stairs up his father’s office. His sister’s painting was still covered by blankets in the dim room. Aura pulled the blankets down. On the boarded up window was Nora’s final piece of art, a portrait of her brother proudly raising his gauntlet for all to see.

Back to the present…

Ash paused outside the door to his flat. His peacoat, which he’d retrieved from Gio’s shop, was draped over his arm. On his cheek a red mark from where Gio had slapped him still stung. The boy was warned to be more careful next time and always remove the coat before a fight, or else Gio would start charging him for the repairs.

Ash stepped into his flat, tossing a small fireball at the wall candle to illuminate the room. Aura was there, sitting upright at the edge of his bed.

“Hey,” he said.

“Yo,” Ash replied.

“How was weapons training?”

“Not great, but that’s just cause I suck,” said Ash as he hung his coat up and removed his shoes. The boy sat on his own bed across from Aura. “Your dad seems cool, though.”

“Hmm,” Aura said, his head out in space.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Aura thought about it for a few seconds before answering. “I guess, you did tell me all your troubles…”

Aura gave Ash the cliff notes of his past. He told him about the night he took his sister’s eyes, and how he was not able to protect his mother from the bizarre and deadly greater demon. He explained how he and Amos drifted apart after that night, how he couldn’t stand to be in the same house with the family he let down and eventually ran away.

“I know it was a cowardly thing for me to do, running away…” Aura kept his eyes lowered to the floor. “I wanted to go back to them, to apologize and beg forgiveness. Never could work up the courage, though. After a few years went by, my dad closed down the factory and moved my sister to North Hell to live with some relatives there. I haven’t seen her since.”

“Want me to ask him about her?” Ash offered.

“No, that’d be too weird. I need to talk to him myself.”

“Now you know where to find him whenever you’re ready.”

“That doesn’t really make it any easier for me,” Aura said, rolling over to lie down on his bed. “If you want some extra sword practice some time, I could give you a few pointers.”

“That’d be cool,” Ash said. Their conversation died out as the boys drifted off to sleep. Before he passed out Ash pressed his hands together in prayer, wishing for some peace of mind and a happy resolution for his friend.

The next morning, Aura was back to normal. He made casual small talk with Ash as they woke up and went about their usual morning routine. He took just as long in the bathroom messing with his hair, and as they flew to the castle he made the usual jokes about how Shiva would be in a fury over their eternal tardiness.

When they arrived to the private courtyard, Shiva and Phoenix were chatting so intently they didn’t even greet the boys. Ash and Aura stood by as the longtime friends gabbed away, lost in conversation about their favorite memories.

“It’s about time we got in a proper training session together! You sure kept me waiting long enough,” Shiva said with a wide smile spread across her face.

“You’ll have to forgive me for taking so long,” Phoenix said. “I’ve been kept busy for most of my life, but I always intended on coming back to spar with you.”

“Better late than never!” said Shiva, giving Phoenix a playful rap on the shoulder.

“They seem
friendly
,” Ash whispered to Aura.

The boy didn’t reply; he was staring instead at Leona, who sat silent in the grass nearby. With her eyes locked on the laughing couple, her jaw tensed as she grinded her teeth. The girl noticed Aura staring at her and quickly averted her gaze.

“
That girl
,” Aura said to himself. “There’s something weird about her…”

“Oh?” Shiva said, popping up next to him. “What is it?” The two of them continued to examine the servant girl while she looked away in embarrassment.

“She’s definitely concealing something under those robes,” Aura said, gripping his chin, deep in thought. “Something
dangerous
.”

“Like what?” Shiva asked. “A weapon!?”

“I think she’s concealing…
a wicked hot body
.”

Shiva smacked the back of Aura’s head in a fit of disappointed anger. “Is that all you think about?!”

“So sorry to interrupt the kooky couple!” Aura replied, gripping his head in pain. “If I’m not needed here I have no problem taking off.”

“Shiva and I were just lost in our memories,” Phoenix said. “We’ll get started now.”

“It’s cool,” Ash said. “Where’s Wilhelm?”

“Lord Wilhelm won’t be joining us today,” said Phoenix.

“Okay, so who’s sparring with who?”

“Today we’ll try something different. There are other ways to free your soul power, after all.” Phoenix sat down on the ground with his legs crossed. The students followed suit. “Close your eyes and clear your mind,” he instructed. “We’re going to meditate now.”

None of the students were the least bit thrilled to hear this, but they obeyed him anyway. For the rest of the day they sat in the shade listening to Phoenix ramble off spiritual mumbo-jumbo. He demonstrated how meditation and reflection helped him hone his own soul power. It was certainly easier than sparring, but the students remained clueless for most of the procedure.

For the next few days, this is how their training days with Phoenix went. Occasionally, Wilhelm would drop by and they’d all spar together for a few hours as well. Other days were spent with Yazma working on their flame control. About once a week, Goddard would send them out looking for any more rebel activity. Phoenix and Leona even joined them on a few of those missions, never straying far from Shiva’s side.

The days when Ash and Shiva trained with Amos always started out the same. Ash would get up in the morning as usual, while Aura stayed in bed. Before heading out, Ash would ask his friend if today would be the day he would make an appearance. Aura would always reply, “maybe,” but he never showed up in an entire month of weapons training. Then one day, the three students sat down on the grass before Phoenix, anticipating another boring meditation session.

“Not today,” the teacher said. “You may stand. Today we’ll be starting the next phase of your soul training. First we worked on your bodies, then we worked on your minds. Now we’ll be training your
senses
. Here’s where all that meditation will hopefully pay off for you.”

Oh great,
Ash thought.
We were supposed to paying attention to everything he was saying then? Why didn’t he warn us this stuff would be on the test! If I knew the crap he was saying was going to be useful, I wouldn’t have brought the mp3 player all those times!

“For today’s lesson, I want you all to stand facing the wall,” Phoenix told them. The group moved into formation as directed, standing several feet apart with their faces toward the courtyard wall. “Stand further apart, please,” he urged them.

“Okay, what now?” Shiva asked once they were all spaced out.

“Now, I am going to throw fireballs at you all. Without turning around to face me, I want you to do the best you can to dodge.”

“
What
?!” Ash and Aura shouted in unison.

“Bring it!” Shiva said.

“Calm yourselves,” Phoenix said. “Clear your minds and do the best you can.”

Shiva stayed calm, having no objections to their newest phase of training. Ash and Aura were considerably more panicky. Ash had spent most of the previous training sessions listening to music and daydreaming. Aura passed the time by sleeping or staring at Leona.

Oh crap,
Ash thought.
What was he saying about reading the wind? If I pay attention to the air currents, I can figure out where my opponent is… or something like that? But how the hell do I do that? And why hasn’t he fired yet? Is he trying to make us sweat? It’s working!

The sound of a fireball whizzing through the air was the only clue that an attack had been launched. And that sound only lasted a second before a fireball slammed into the wall where Shiva had been standing only a second ago. She was able to avoid the first fireball without looking.

Holy crap! That’s all the time I have to react!? I’m screwed!

Again, a fireball could be heard soaring through the air. Ash jumped out of the way on instinct, but as he looked to Aura on his left he realized the fireball was heading towards him instead.

Aura stood still, his arms crossed as if he was bored. The fireball rocketed straight at the back of his head, and when it was only a foot away Aura bent his knees ever so slightly making himself short enough that the fireball passed directly over him without burning so much as a single hair on his head.

“I thought it’d be harder,” Aura said with a cocky tone. “You’re up next I take it, Ash!”

Ash gulped. This was it. His turn to dodge a fireball. His teammates had been able to do it, so maybe it wasn’t as hard as it looked. For a moment, he even felt confident. He tried his best to shut his mind down and listen for the telltale sound of the fireball whizzing through the air. Seconds passed by like an agonizing eternity.

Then it happened. He heard the fireball launch from Phoenix’s hand. The boy leapt to the left. He figured he would see the fireball crash into the wall where he was just standing. Instead the fireball pelted him in the back of his head, bashing his face into the wall and exploding in a small blast of smoke and flame.

“
Ash
!” Aura shouted, rushing to his friend’s side. He stopped himself just in time, as another fireball struck the wall before him. If he had continued moving, he would have been hit by it. “
What the hell, Phoenix
!?”

“The training does not end when one of you gets hit. If you fail, you are to get back up and try until you succeed.” Phoenix launched another fireball at Shiva, which she dodged without saying a word.

“You’re cheating though!” Aura accused him. “I saw it! You moved your fireball in mid-flight! You started out shooting it at where he was, but when he moved to dodge it, you changed the direction! He had already succeeded, and you still hit him!”

“
Shut up, Draxler
…” Shiva whispered to him.

“Is that what you think?” Phoenix asked.

“Aura…” Ash said, climbing to his feet. “It’s okay. Let it go.”

“What? Why? He’s cheating and making you look bad!”

“He’s
not
cheating though. He never said he wouldn’t control the direction of his flames. All he told us was to dodge. It’d be pointless training if all we did was move when we hear a
sound
. By targeting us no matter where we dodge to, we’ll have to figure out how to evade even directed attacks. Didn’t you notice? The fireballs he threw at Shiva followed her as well. Except she was good enough to evade both times. I wasn’t. But I
will
next time.”

“Damn it, Ash,” Aura said, lowering his head in shame. “You make me look bad some times.”

“You make yourself look bad, dude,” Ash smiled.

“Ash is right,” Phoenix said. “This training is meant to prepare you to sense not only where your opponent’s attack is coming from, but also where it is going. You cannot always have your eyes on the opponent, unfortunately. That is why learning to sense where an attack is at all times is an essential ability to master.”

“I’m ready!” Ash called out, facing the wall once more.
This time will be different!
he thought. Seeing his friend so determined to return to their insane training, Aura let go of his anger and faced the wall as well. If a goofball like Ash could face this trial bravely, then he figured he could too.

Phoenix launched the next fireball. Instead of panicking like last time, Ash remained calm and kept his eyes closed tight. They wouldn’t help him with this lesson anyway. Ash listened to the sound of the fireball coming closer. He could tell instantly that it was not aimed at him; it was flying too far to the left.

It’s heading for Aura!
Ash looked to his left. Once again, Aura stood perfectly still with his arms crossed.
He must know…

The fireball slammed into Aura’s back, knocking him hard against the wall. Aura screamed out in surprise and pain as he fell backward onto the grass. Ash almost ran over to him but stifled the instinct. This was just part of training. He’d have to get used to it. The sound of another fireball being launched snapped him back into focus.

Shiva jumped straight into the air. The fireball curved upward after her. There was an explosion, and Shiva dropped to the ground landing flat on her back. Ash only got to inspect her for a second before Phoenix launched another fireball. But something was different about this one…

It was the sound. There was more noise than usual. Then Ash realized why.

There are two fireballs! One is heading for me, and the other is aimed at Aura!

Ash cocked his head sideways and saw Aura still struggling to stand up from the last attack that hit him. It didn’t look like this time was going to end well either, as Aura dropped back onto his knees. Ash had to look away as he made his own attempt at dodging the fireball coming for him.