Vincent drags Shalbiri broken body and lay him down under a tree. “Speak.”
Shalbiri still hesitates to talk. Obviously he’s more afraid of something else than these two angels of death. “If I speak, ‘He’ won’t let me live”
“Well, buddy. Here’s how it goes. Either we make it a slow painful death now, or whoever ‘He’ is will do it for you. It’s just a matter of time.”
“My master won’t let me live. I’d rather die than telling you anything.”
“Let me handle it.” Jenna taps Vincent’s shoulder and tells him to pull back.
“Look now, Shalbiri is it? Can I call you Shal?” Shalbiri, not knowing what to answer on a question nobody ever asks, just nods.
“Shal, let me ask you something, do you think your master will let you live after your failure?” Shalbiri’s back hair rises upon hearing it. “I reckon your master is someone really nice and fluffy that you’re so afraid of him?” Shalbiri shakes his head in terror.
“Now, I’m giving you a better deal. If you tell us where you keep your Manna Crystal, we promise we will let you live.” Vincent shakes his head and gives Jenna an angry look. Jenna stares at him back, widen her eyes that conveys “play along.” He gets the hint and calms down. Jenna turns her head back to Shalbiri.
“Look, I am willing to give you a chance. You see my friend Zury there; he is not as nice as me, as you can already see. If you don’t cooperate, well, your life is in his hands, and I don’t know what he will do to you.” Shalbiri looks at Vincent, who already puts on his meanest face, with sword and shield ready. “This time I WILL use the sword. A lightning fast runner like you won’t need both of your two feet, RIGHT?” Shalbiri looks at him in horror, his face pales. Vincent almost can’t hold his smile “huh, even a demon can go paler than it already is”
”Okay, okay. I’ll talk. Just keep him away from me.” Jenna looks at Vincent and winks at him.
“That a boy. Now, where is it?”
“I always carry it with me. It’s in my pouch.” Jenna is going to take the pouch, but Vincent stops her. “Jenna, don’t. Let him do it.” Jenna moves back, readies her bow and prepares sheer will arrows aimed at him.
Shal panics “Wait, wait, wait. I won’t attack you. Promise.”
“I don’t believe the promise of a demon. Slowly. Let it out. If you try anything funky, you’ll meet your end here.”
Shalbiri slowly opens the pouch as his hands are shaking. Then he pulls out a glowing manna crystal. “Here it is. See..no monkey business.”
“Throw it over here.” Shalbiri throws the manna crystal close to Vincent’s feet. “I gave you the crystal. Now will you let me go?”
“Not until I prove that this is the right crystal” Vincent picks up the crystal, stares at it, and then turns to Jenna. “Keep an eye on him. I think I will be knocked unconscious for a couple of minutes.”
Vincent sighs, readies the crystal in his hands. “Here we go.” He closes his eyes, and hits the manna crystal to his head. It explodes as soon as it touches Vincent’s forehead. He’s thrown several feet and lands on the grass.
“Vincent ! Vincent ! Are you alright ? Vince !!!” Jenna yells at Vincent while keeping an eye on Shalbiri. She wants to check on Vincent, but she doesn’t want to leave anything to chance. A couple of seconds later, Jenna to her relief, hears “Urrgghhhh, my head.”
“Hey, you alright?”
“Yeah. That was an unpleasant experience…”
“So was it the real deal?”
“Yeah. It’s all jumbled right now. But I think it will make sense in time.”
“So can I go now?” Shalbiri begs to be freed.
“Yes you may. Go now before we change our mind” Shalbiri gets up and walks slowly.
“Wait before you go, who’s your master?”
“He who called himself The Lord of the Darkness”
“What? Who?”
Out of the blue, a loud voice comes from behind them “Traitor!!!!” Jenna and Vincent turn to find the source of the shout, and see Uvall coming at them like mad bull. They are startled, but react fast enough to get out of the way. Uvall run pass them, straight at Shalbiri who is too weak for any attack. He tries his dark cloud attack, but nothing comes out. Like defensive tackle gunning for an unprotected quarterback, Uvall slams Shalbiri so hard that Shalbiri is thrown and literally stuck into one of the tree. Uvall dashes toward Shalbiri, and make a living punching bag out of him. Uvall bludgeon him brutally, again, and again, and again until Shalbiri lies there motionless. Finally feels satisfied, Uvall turns around trying to find Vincent and Jenna. They’re both gone. Uvall roars like Cro-Magnon warrior, destroys a tree with a powerful kick and throws it high in the air. “ZURIEEEELLLLLLLLLL !!!!!!!!”
~υ~
Vincent is watching Uvall ferociously beating Shalbiri from afar. “Are you ready for round two?” Battle-mode Jenna is eager to land lots of arrows on Uvall. “I am if you are” Vincent readies his shield and sword.
Without warning, Vincent feels his head throbbing. His weapons fall to the ground, and he swings his elbows holding his head like crazy. “It hurts..it hurts….”
“What’s going on ?”
“My head…my head….the pain…..hurrghhhh”
Jenna quickly put her bow to her back, pick up the sword and shield and put them into the satchel. “I think we better retreat for now. There will be another chance” Jenna puts Vincent’s arm on her shoulder, and slowly carries him. The pain is too intense that he can barely walk. Jenna opens up the Gate of the Void, and escort Vincent entering the gate. She looks back one more time, and even from afar, she can see blood spatters everywhere. “Another time” and they both disappear into thin air.
They reappear in the forest where they first started. This is the default place that the gate goes when no destination is entered. Jenna lays Vincent down on the grass. He’s still groaning and moaning from the pain. Jenna is frustrated, she can’t offer any help. She wants to give him the elixir, but somehow knows that it will makes thing worse. So she just watch him squirming and twisting like a junkie going through a withdrawal.
After several minutes that feels like an eternity to Vincent, he calms down. His breathing slows down, and comes back to the normal rhythm. He slowly turns around and lies on his back. Jenna comes over. “How are you feeling ? What happen ?”
“The second part of the manna crystal carry the pain and suffering that I went through. That’s why it’s just too much to take, especially with the flood of memory that rushes back in.”
“I see. Would you like to take a rest ?” Jenna strokes Vincent’s hair, and holds his forehead to check for temperature.
“Yeah. I think it would be best to rest here for a while.” Jenna gets up “I’ll look for a place to rest.” She walks around for a while, and then comes back with good news. “I found a cave near here.. Can you walk ?”
Vincent tries to get up, but falls down on his bottom. The effect of the memory flood is to great. “Come, I will carry you” Jenna picks up Vincent and holds him by his waist. She leads him to the cave and spends the night there, to regain their strength before the next attack.
~υ~
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