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“Damn it!”
Ena sent a blast of divine power at a writhing entanglement of vines, creating a hole just big enough for a person to go through.
Behind her, Mizuki sent a volley of throwing knives at a crowd of powder-blue snakes—causing the unlucky ones to explode in a volley of white smoke upon contact.
They were in front of an old clock tower, deep in the middle of the forest. Once old and covered over with scraggly old plants, it was now pulsating with ancient, rotten energy—a sure sign of a Fiend summoning.
The brown-haired cleric sent an angry look at Mafuyu, frozen to the ground. A pasty-white tendril of vine creeped over the open space, causing Ena to glance back and send another burst of energy at the offending barrier.
“What are you waiting for? Get the fuck over there!”
Mafuyu—stunned out of her reverie—gave a quick nod to her, and with a flash, raced down the worn stone steps to the tower. With a leap, she pulled her cape close to her sides and jump through the gap, shutting her eyes against the valley of plants that scraped at her body and strained to push the intruder out—
And stumbled onto the first floor of the clock tower.
The opening behind her quickly shut—Ena conserving the rest of her power, most likely—leaving Mafuyu at the bottom of an ancient stairwell.
As the ranger pushed herself up from the smooth tiles, she could detect the faint whispers of magic above her—on the clock tower’s second floor.
The distant murmuring of two beings in negotiation pricked her ears, and Mafuyu took off running up the circular stairs of the building.
No time to waste.
The girl traversed the tower’s worn steps—pausing at moments to shoot away awry reptiles and magical illusions—aiming for the thick wooden door that barred the way to the top level of the ancient structure. At times, Mafuyu would put aside her bow in favor of the twin shortswords strapped firmly to her sides—hacking at overgrown plants to get closer, closer, closer to the door.
Anything to stop her from making a deal with the devil.
A stray vine caught Mafuyu's cape and tore off a corner—the ranger cringing at the sound.
Soon, she was at the door—weary and looking like she had just fought a war (which she basically did), but there nonetheless.
A lizard scurried under her shoes and let out a vain hiss as Mafuyu put her hand on the large brass doorknob, high above the ground—evident that the clock tower’s defenses had all but run out.
Mafuyu’s eyes went dark and she slammed her foot down on the offending creature, causing it to explode into nothingness.
The ranger twisted the door handle—readying her shortsword in the other hand—and pushed in.
“—Yes.”
Kanade stood in the middle of a decrepit room, face to face with a massive anthropomorphic snake—constructed of pure elemental energy. At their, a crude chalk drawing of a pentagram lay, the stalks of blown-out candles trembling weakly at its majesty.
A book lay as a medium between the two, glowing with eerie green energy, facilitating the heated negotiation between her and Serpens.
“Serpens—An Old One that lived off of contracts with the mortal realm, offering anything one could desire in exchange for a person’s soul—which he would claim, after a certain duration of time, and feed greedily upon, sending the contractee into certain damnation.”
Kanade tilted her head onto Mafuyu’s shoulder and placed the book of patron gods down with a frown.
They were seated in a pub in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by chattering guests and drunk idiots who would ever so often lean over into their booth and hit on Kanade—before scurrying away with their tail between their legs (quite literally, for some) at Mafuyu’s death glare.
The taller girl looked over and cast a glance at a sketch in the book, catching view of a green snake—about the height of two humans, judging from the little drawing of a person to its right—with a ruff like a python’s and two humanoid arms protruding from its sides, the right hand grasping a heart and the left a spellbook, thrumming with magic.
“Seems like a bad deal,” Mafuyu commented. “A temporary boon for the price of eternal hell.”
“Yeah,” Kanade mumbled back, staring down at the manuscript.
Mafuyu’s eyes wandered over to her partner’s, catching an odd glint of light in Kanade’s expression.
“Anything you desire must be very tempting, though. It’s a shame that Serpens’ summoning ritual has been lost to time.”
The ranger’s eyebrows drew in. “A shame?”
Kanade blinked—as if coming out of a daydream—and jumped up from Mafuyu’s shoulder, waving her hands wildly.
“Not like that, I mean—uh—like it’s a shame that we won’t ever be able to research patron gods like him, as a lot of them have been lost to time!”
Her eyes softened as she roamed over the pile of books gathered high atop the pub’s greasy table—a reward from the searching the pair had done in the remains of an obscure temple.
“You know, being a scholar but being unable to perform any magic is rough—I'm always thinking about all the things I could accomplish with the help of a Mage Hand or two, the books I could get more easily, or the potions I could craft more efficiently with power to call my own.”
She trailed off, and Mafuyu could tell who she was thinking of—a gray-haired, pale man lying in Kanade’s home, tethered to life only by the alchemists’ potions and rudimentary inventions.
“Magic comes at a cost, though.” Mafuyu said. “Ena has to perform costly rituals and offerings to keep herself in favor with her god, or she loses her power for a week—”replaced with enough headaches to kill a newborn child”, I guess.”
“Yeah,” Kanade sighed, “I know. She complains about it every single time we meet up. It’s just…”
She grasped the edge of Mafuyu’s hand and laced their fingers together—feeling the rough grooves and calluses of many battles fought and (some easily, some barely) won.
“—Nevermind.”
“Kanade!”
The girl showed no signs of response, still communicating in hushed voices with the reptilian creature. Serpens gave a single nod, as if acquiescing to her words, and then drew up to his height, the white marks of the pentagram beginning to glow viridescent as he extended a single scaly hand to Kanade.
The scholar—after a moment's hesitation—lifted her hand to shake his.
Suddenly, an arrow flew through Serpens’ ruff, causing a ripple in the illusory creature as it traveled through his head and lodged in the other side of the tower.
Mafuyu—bow drawn—caught a hint of disgust in the demon’s face as Kanade jolted, arm falling down to her side.
“Kanade!”
Kanade turned her head and stared at the ranger—blinking as if coming out of a deep slumber.
“Mafu—yu?”
Suddenly, a crowd of vines leaped up from the ground, ensnaring the purple-haired girl in their thin arms. Mafuyu thrashed against the plants, eyes flashing with simple nature magic to dispel the organisms—but to no avail. They kept her as firmly bound as an anchor to a ship.
The snake-like creature shook his head and slapped Kanade’s shoulder with one arm, signaling to go on with the procedure.
“Kanade, you can’t do this!” Mafuyu shouted, struggling against the runners. “He’s the devil! You’ll lose your soul if you make a deal with him!”
Kanade looked mournfully back at her.
“There has to be another way to help your father! Don’t stake your life on something so—so unfair!”
…It’s not just him, Mafuyu.
Words, barely uttered, dropped from Kanade’s lips, and yet they hit Mafuyu’s brain with the force of a speeding truck.
Magic.
I’ve seen the scars, the cuts—the power you guys have to expend, every single day, for me and my selfish pursuits and lack of magic.
I can’t put you guys in danger anymore.
I have to do this.
Vines chafed her skin and wound slowly up Mafuyu’s figure, closer and closer to her head. Kanade turned her head resolutely back to the serpentine creature.
I will make a pact with you, Old One—grant me your knowledge and ancient power, and at the end of my life, my soul will be yours to take.
She slapped her palm into Serpens’, and with a firm shake, sealed the deal.
In the blink of an eye, the demon melted into fiery green particles and raced into Kanade’s chest.
The girl gasped and doubled over, hacking blood onto the cold tiled floors.
The plants that kept Mafuyu trapped fell to the floor, and the ranger sprinted towards Kanade’s figure, reaching in vain for the spellbook that still lay on the floor, glowing brightly and casting the room in oppressive bright light—
And it was over.
The spellbook closed, and the magic that coalesced so tightly in the tower dissipated as the white pentagram melted into the floor and faded from sight.
Kanade slumped to the floor, a thin trail of blood leaking from her mouth.
Mafuyu grabbed her shoulders and pulled the girl up into her lap, ears ringing from the noise bouncing against the walls.
Is that screaming? Is someone screaming?
Am—
Am I screaming?
The purple-haired girl tilted Kanade’s unconscious face toward her own—lips pursing open in astonishment.
Kanade’s face and neck, before unblemished, now had marks and cracks mottled into their skin—places where flesh fused into dark green scales and back again.
Mafuyu ran a finger over the patchy areas, noting the way they changed almost seamlessly from smooth skin into rough reptilian snake-skin. She rubbed at the dried blood in the corner of her lips and let out an anguished sigh.
The girl’s eyes drifted open for an instant, then fell back into slumber.
Her eyes were different.
Instead of two pastel-blue eyes—the color of the ocean—her right eye was blue, and right was—was green.
Pale green, like the color commonly associated with snakes—the color of the magic that had taken place just moments ago.
Mafuyu pulled the girl into a hug and buried Kanade’s head into her shoulder, trying in vain to stop herself from shaking. The white-haired girl slept fitfully in her arms as Mafuyu let out a choked sob, clutching her close to her chest.
“Kanade, you idiot. ”
What have you gotten yourself into this time?