—Something feels off.
That was the thought that had been gnawing at Delum ever since Leperace had stepped foot inside the house.
Maybe it was the fact that the interior of the house seemed completely submerged in darkness; or maybe it was because thanks to the massive holes in it's walls, Delum could see that the house was falling apart.
—Not to mention that putrid stench of rotting wood…
Everything about this house rubbed him the wrong way. In fact, the house was so comically wrong that it felt as if the world itself was telling him that something was wrong.
Despite all of this however, Delum refrained from simply rushing in to the house, mainly for two reasons. The first of those being—
—Have faith in Leperace. He's managed to succeed every other time, with even less odds than this. Need to have faith in him.
In total, across the span of four years, the bandit duo of Leperace and Delum had robbed at least more than fifty buildings, and never once had Leperace failed. Whether there was a monstrous threat in the building they were stealing such as a zerovile or a wakea, or just the owners of the building themselves who came chasing after him and Leperace, Leperace had always reigned supreme. He didn't want to start doubting his friend now.
The second, and possibly the even bigger reason as to why he did not truly want to get involved in this, was because when it came to any sort of combat—
—Am useless.
Leperace, before ending up in the slums at the age of ten, had been taught about magic and combat beforehand by his family. Not only that, Delum remembers Leperace telling him that he had been taught by one of the greatest and most competent mages in the entire Lightning Kingdom of Zerophyirya. And on top of that, after he had ended up in the slums, Leperace had been taught hand to hand combat and how to use swords by a former knight of the kingdom. The only thing Leperace lacked was knowledge of healing and defensive spells. He was all offense.
All in all, Leperace could fight like a warrior if such a situation presented itself before him. He was nowhere near strong enough to take on say, multiple zeroviles at the same time, nor was he strong enough to take down a single royal guard, but his power was more than enough for the slums.
Delum, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Leperace. Not only was he a slum-born, Delum also did not know how to cast a single offensive spell, nor how to wield a sword, axe or any weapon of the sort. At first, he found this to be embarrassing. After all, he was two years older than Leperace, and being weaker than someone younger than you was embarrassing for any man to admit. That was however, until he realized just how useful he was at supporting another during battle.
Delum had mastered a multitude of healing and defensive spells, and thanks to his creativity, he always managed to find a way to get the most use out of them in battle. For example, if Leperace got hurt mid battle, Delum could use a ranged healing spell on him, or even better, cast a defensive shield around him that lasted for a while. Leperace, however, did not like it when Delum helped him in battle. And that was because of—
—The fact that my Energy capacity is so low.
To this day, over 1500 years after the discovery of the world known as 'Ashmyr', no one truly knows what 'Energy' is. Everyone is aware that Energy is what enables people to be able to use magic, but that was the base level explanation for it.
If people run out of Energy, then their every movement becomes slow, their thoughts become slower, and even their breathing and blood flow slows down. In some rare cases, people are born with naturally low Energy capacity, such as Delum.
Taking a deep breath and shaking his head, Delum brought himself back to the real world. He had been deep in his thoughts for about five minutes now, and Leperace still was not out.
"Something's definitely wrong...damn it."
Gritting his teeth, Delum decided he had just about enough of this tension and walked into the house. He was just gonna grab Leperace and get out. By now, it was obvious to him that this plan was a bust and that they would get no money from it. But, that didn't matter to him. What mattered was Leperace.
Walking deeper and deeper into the house, Delum had the same thought that his friend had—
—Why is this house so dark? Couldn't be bothered to add some lighting?
Walking deeper and deeper, the house's wooden floorboards creaked underneath his footsteps. He walked deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper.
"This is getting ridiculous…How big is this house?"
Eventually, he found himself standing in an open room. Exhaling a sigh of relief, he took his bearings and took in a deep breath.
"Gh! Ga! W-what the hell!?"
He immediately regretted that decision as an even worse stench than before assaulted his nostrils.
He narrowed his eyes in disgust and covered his nose. Just as he was about to wonder what the source of that horrible stench could possibly be, it occurred to him.
—Have smelled this before. Multiple times, in fact. This is…!
"Leperace!"
Red eyes widening in panic, he shouted his friends name. All the times he had smelled this before was when a dead body was nearby.
"Leperace!"
Delum knew that the source was most definitely not Leperace. Firstly, he heavily doubted that Leperace would lose to a single zerovile of all things, and secondly, the body had to have been decaying for at least a few hours for the smell to get this bad.
At first he thought that this could've possibly been from the zerovile itself, since it's literally just a dead body. But then he remembered that zerovile's don't really have a smell, which served to make them scarier, in his opinion. One could not smell, hear or even sense a zerovile coming.
Gathering little Energy at his palm, Delum cast gnesid, a spell that produced a small, bright light at the source of where it was cast. In this case, Delum's hand began to glow white, providing a small, yet bright light source.
He continued walking forward, arm extended in front of him to illuminate his surroundings. And unlike Leperace, Delum was instantly able to see the source of the stench thanks to the light.
The bodies of the family he had been stalking for the past week lay in front of him on the ground. Well, he supposed that it was the family he had been stalking, at least.
All three bodies were in terrible condition. If they were indeed the family he had been stalking, then they were probably murdered a few hours ago since he had seen them walking around the night before. For a second, he wondered if Leperace had been caught by the family and he had done this, but once again, he quickly dispelled the thought.
—The bodies have definitely been here for hours, and well, Leperace would never kill someone who didn't harm him first, and even then, he would never do it in such a…brutal manner.
They were all missing limbs, blood had been spilled all around them, the floor and the furniture, and their faces had been eaten. It was undoubtedly done by the zerovile.
Not being able to control himself, Delum bent over and regurgitated. However, he had not eaten anything yet, so all that came out was bright yellow bile that made his throat burn. He brought his hands up to his face and wiped the bile off his mouth with his sleeve.
"This is disgusting…no matter how many times me eyes witness shit like this, they'll never get used to it."
He looked up with teary red eyes.
"Leperace...Where are you, Leperace?!"
Raising his glowing hand, he waved it around until his eyes found their target.
"Lepe—!"
Opening his mouth to shout out Leperace's name, he immediately closed it the moment he saw the tall, horrifying red skinned creature next to his friend.
And his friend…
The moment his eyes registered what exactly he was looking at, his mouth dropped open and he could not help but let out a squeak of fear and worry.
Leperace was bleeding profusely from his stomach, and it appeared as if his guts were barely holding themselves in. He had his eyes closed, but Delum could see his bloodied chest rising up and down, faint as it was.
But that was not what made his eyes widen in fear. No, that was because of the zerovile in front of him.
It was crouched down on all fours, and even from a few feet away, Delum could see that it had opened its mouth by an unnatural degree. It looked as if its lower jaw was broken. What made the sight even worse, was the fact that the zerovile's mouth was rapidly approaching Leperace's neck.
Delum had no clue how the thing had not heard his yelling, but he did not know if he should be grateful for that or not.
What he did know, however, was that he was currently feeling an intense sense of overwhelming fear. Not because of the zerovile this time, but because of—
—Shit! Have to help Leperace! Need to help Leperace right now!
He quickly stopped casting gnesid and looked around rapidly. His eyes bounced from one object to another, but he found nothing useful that could help him.
—Have to- I have to help him quickly! I have to help him urgently! I have to help him right now!
Forgetting his usual way of talking and thinking, Delum began to look around even more quickly. The zerovile's mouth was getting closer and closer to Leperace's neck. Delum could feel his heart thumping in his chest.
—I need to, I need to, I need to...
There was nothing there. Nothing he could do. Leperace's short swords were way too close to the zerovile for Delum to be able to sneak past it and retrieve them.
And even if he did, what was he supposed to do with them? Wave them around like a child pretending to be a warrior?
While yes, he did know how to stab things, he was almost certain that fighting a zerovile required more skill than just knowing how to stab things.
—He's bleeding! Leperace is bleeding and losing blood! Help! Help him!
What on Ashmyr was he supposed to do? He could not fight, and he could not damage the thing with magic.
He was under so much stress, that the thought of casting a protective circle around his friend did not even cross his mind.
But even then, the zerovile was too close for him to successfully cast a protective spell that didn't end up protecting the zerovile as well, so there was no point.
Searching, searching. What was he supposed to do then? He couldn't just let one of his only two friends die. Not now, not ever. Especially not such a horrible, graceless death. Especially not Leperace.
—Shit, shit, shit! I need to help him! I need to seriously fucking help him! I can't just stand here any longer! I need to move!
Searching, searching. By now, the zeroviles mouth was only a few centimetres away from his precious friend's neck. He couldn't, he couldn't…
—What the hell am I supposed to do?! I'm useless in this scenario! I can't do shit!
Of course, he could always risk it and just try to grab Leperace's swords and just pray to god that he manages to stab the thing in the right spot, but there was a big issue to that as well.
—...I don't want to die either.
Truly, Delum was an indecisive, inadequate, incompetent, cowardly, useless, weak, pathe—
—Seriously...…..
What am I supposed to do?
And it was at this grim, dark moment, that Delum first heard the voice. The voice of—
"The walls, young Delum...the very walls, dost thou see?"
"…what?"
Delum's eyes stopped their searching. His muscles seemed to relax and his open jaw closed itself as the authoritative voice with its divine and merciful tone resounded directly in his ears.
Delum looked around. There was no one there. The voice appeared to not come from anywhere near, and yet it seemed as if there was no noise in the world apart from it.
"T-the walls? What do you mean?"
The reply came swiftly and with no sigh; how patient the voice was.
"What I mean, young Delum, is that thou must employ thy mind. Remember; from whence didst thee and dear Leperace enter this house? What didst thou perceive that at once struck thee as most peculiar?"
Where they came from...
—Leperace went in through a hole in the wall and I followed suit...
The voice remained quite as Delum's mind began to race.
—What struck me as peculiar...the darkness? That this house has no lighting?
"Is that truly all? Art thou certain that naught but the darkness of this house struck thee as strange?"
Yes. That was the only thing, was it not?
"Think, young Delum. Thy sole failing lieth in thy inability to prove thyself in battle. Thou must think, and think well."
—Think, think...What else was there? What else am I supposed to be thinking about? All I can think of is the darkness.
That was it. That was all he could think of. That was all there was.
—No wait...walls...he mentioned something about walls. I came in through a hole in the wall...a hole in the wall...a hole...
It suddenly clicked.
—The house's walls are crumbling! That means they're weak!
He looked around the room, and spotted a wall right beside the zerovile that he could push down.
Delum hoped that if he managed to drop the entire wall on the damn thing, then maybe it would give him enough time to grab Leperace and get out.
Although the voice had remained quiet, Delum could subconsciously tell that it was proud of him for making that connection.
There was a wall that he could push down, but the issue was how he would get to that wall. He waited for the voice to come back and help him, but alas, the gracious voice did not come back. The rest was up to him.
—If I go from the back, it'll definitely be the easiest wall to collapse, but it'll do the least amount of damage to that thing. If I go from the front, it'll definitely see me and kill me and Leperace for certain.
Delum knew that he had no time to contemplate as the zeroviles mouth wrapped around Leperace's neck.
Ditching all thought, Delum ran outside of the room and reached the wall that he knew was beside the zerovile. He couldn't just punch the wall as that would only cause a hole to appear. He couldn't kick the wall either, as once again, it would not really crumble.
He clenched his jaw and put his hands up to the wall. He couldn't push it either. The only option left was—
"I have to bring it down using deliria."
Calling upon all the Energy inside of him, he chanelled it into his hands. His palms began to glow orange as he felt the wall soften beneath his hands.
He then stepped backwards, keeping one hand on the wall, raised the other in a fist, and punched the wall.
The wall immediately came flying off, collapsing some of the roof as well, making Delum step back to avoid the rubble. The zerovile had no time to react as a rock-hard wall suddenly hit it from above, crushing it underneath.
Derilia was a semi-defensive gravity spell. It consumed a large amount of Energy, and in return made whatever the caster wanted appear and feel soft and malleable to them, letting them control the object or item. There were no limitations to the spell other than the caster's own Energy capacity.
However, despite the object feeling soft to the caster, that was not truly the case to the receiving end of the spell. In fact, derilia amplified the toughness of the object to deal more damage. It was a semi-defensive, semi-offensive spell.
A spell that Delum Creaty was unable to cast. Despite learning how to cast it, his Energy capacity being low hindered his ability to cast the spell. Delum should have, by no means, been able to cast this spell. Rather, what should have happened was him instantly flat lining due to overexertion of his Energy, and yet, he was still standing.
It was as if a miracle had occurred. It was as if someone had given him more power for a moment in order to save Leperace.
However, Delum did not pay heed to this. It didn't occur as strange to him—mostly because his mind hadn't truly registered what just happened.
"Leperace!"
He ran back inside the room and towards his friend. Leperace was still breathing, but even more faint now than before.
"Shit...I have to get him to Miss Riakan."
He wrapped his arms around his friend and started to carry him, but something suddenly felt off. It felt as if the land was shaking.
"The ground is shaking...? Oh crap!"
He realized what was happening just in time as the wall he had dropped onto the zerovile was thrown upwards, and the horrific being underneath swiftly stood upwards.
—I have to get Leperace and myself out of here!
He had initially thought of grabbing the swords and engaging in a fight against the zerovile, but he quickly rejected the idea. If Leperace had lost against it, then he most certainly would as well.
Leperace was much lighter than he should've been, and that disturbed him. Delum looked upwards—and managed to dodge just in time as the zeroviles claws punctured the wall where he was just standing.
Delum had rolled away, still holding onto Leperace tightly. He quickly stood up and without hesitation turned around and began to run back from where he came in.
The zerovile pulled his claws out of the wall and started to chase Delum as the house started crumbling around it.
Delum tensed even further when he heard the fast-approaching footsteps of the zerovile behind him.
He could not close his eyes, no matter how much he wanted to. He could not stop, no matter how much his legs were burning. He could not do any of that as he felt Leperace's breathing get slower and slower.
—I can't let him die! I can't! If I do, then not only will I carry guilt and regret for the rest of my life, I'll also lose a precious friend! I have to-, I have to-, I have to keep running!
His entire body feeling as if it was set on fire, Delum continued to run.
After a few seconds, he could clearly see light and the hole from which he came in. He felt relief light up in his chest.
But that relief didn't last long.
"Gah!"
Suddenly, what seemed to be a shockwave hit his back, launching him forwards into a wall. Fortunately, it was a wall that led directly outside the moment it crumbled.
Delum tried to get up and continue running the moment he ended up outside, but, unfortunately, he could no longer move as he did not have a left leg from his knee down.
…
….
....
"G-gah!! AHH! Ghk! Shit! Shit! Shit!"
He held the stump where his leg should have been, and cried in agony. His vision pulsated as he writhed in pain, dropping Leperace to the side carelessly.
"It hurts! It hurts, it hurts it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, IT HURTS!!"
He closed his eyes as tears began falling out. Still twisting in pain as blood pooled around him. Of course, he could use a healing spell, but there was no point without his leg. If he had his leg and was holding it close to his stump, he could reattach it, and the pain would slowly alleviate.
The thought did not cross his mind, however.
He felt light headed. He was about to faint. He knew that much. There was nothing but pain. Blinding, pulsating, throbbing pain.
"GAHHHH!"
The more he thought about it, the more pain he felt. He screamed again and again, but it did nothing to alleviate his pain. It did however, do another helpful thing.
"What happened here?!"
"Don't ask questions and just go kill that thing! Help the kids!"
"No, don't kill it! Just chase it away!"
Delum's ears barely registered the three voices of the people that had come when they heard the sound of the crumbling house and Delum's screams. His eyes were shut tight so he didn't see the nervous guard who approached him and Leperace.
He only felt himself being lifted up as he began to slip out of consciousness. However, just before he did, he heard the voice again. It sounded...proud? Happy? Pleased?
"It seemeth that I did well to entrust dear Leperace to thee, young Delum. How unfortunate that ye must now forget."
Delum lost consciousness.