The Novel's Sidekick



That awful taint of spiritual energy was running out, and Yeriel barely managed to stop the beast after taking quite a beating.

After she reunited with her physical self, she was bleeding now. Not just from the wound she got from the beast, but by just drawing out more power than she was capable of.

Other than that, one side of the antlers on her head had broken in the combat—Yeriel had no idea what to think about that. Her mind had grown numb of all since they were dug into her head, but she was getting her sanity back the more the awful possessive power was drawing out of her.

Perhaps there was still hope for her to go back, as Oscar said it. Perhaps she would turn normal after she wasted all this energy. No, she wanted this power. This power makes her awesome. Nobody can get away with doing bad things to her ever again. She would kill them if they did, like that man she killed.

"No,” Yeriel yelled, "this isn’t me.’ She felt sick drawing the heinous power, but she had no other option. She had to stop the beast. Oscar had lost consciousness of doing whatever he was trying to do. Nor were there any signs of Noyar and Jon. She had to hold on to it until they came back.

She and the beast stood ten paces away, with their spiritual aura colliding with one another. No one wanted to lose out even an inch. This was how their battle went so far, though she was thrown away more than a couple of times already. Her body wasn't healing like before, it was not that fast when she remembered she healed broken limbs in a span of a few seconds after the beast collided with her in the mountain.

Still, she couldn't run away.

* * *

Noyar groaned, sitting up in the debris. There was a big hole in the staircase from where they fell. Her head felt numb with a buzzing cacophony. Though the place was strangely silent. Blinking a few times, she looked around, only to find Jon unconscious a few paces away.

She carried the waste of a body towards him and tried to wake him up. Calling his name didn’t work. She checked with her dominion eyes to find his aura had become even more disoriented, decomposing within him. He got hit by the soul aura head-on. Luckily, it was only for an instant, so he managed to keep his life.

Biting her lips, she provided him with some spiritual energy. A few seconds later, his body lurched up abruptly, with his chest heaving high.

“What?” he asked immediately. “What happened?” Then he looked around to remember exactly what had happened.

With Noyar helping him, he was able to stand up, but the moment he tried to work on the dominion of gravity, he barely managed to lift himself up about half a metre.

“Jon,” Noyar called, seeing what was happening to Jon through her Dominion Vision. His soul aura, those thousands upon thousands of threads, untangled at a frightening pace the moment he started using Dominion. “Stop that. You’re killing yourself.”

“But the kids.” He didn’t rest for a while, but after finding his push was not enough to traverse the staircases.

“Stop all that and think for a second,” Noyar said as she walked upwards or downwards, whatever it seemed hanging from upside down. “Oscar said it would be almost impossible for us to get there if we’re not together.”

Almost Impossible, but not entirely. He also mentioned that her dominion might help her in the way at first.

Without further ado, she proceeded to inspect the staircases again, even though it made her head feel giddy. The stairs were still like that, processing in a complicated yet uniform flow, but when her eyes darted towards the broken structure on account of the Winterheart Reindeer. She finally saw something new in the broken hole.

It was something like the case with Jon, though one was alive, and the other was an inanimate object. No, they were not just inanimate objects; they were created through some special means. She was just about to get something out of nowhere. A blind light assaulted her eyes. Noyar’s first instinct was to close her eyes, but she kept them open. Even though the light was blindingly intense, she could see through it. More importantly, the light was giving her familiar pulses.

Moreover, it appeared her gamble paid off, as she saw the whole rift space in that split second. She saw everything. This place was not really that broad, only the weird staircase maze made it so. When the light hit, all the staircases cleared off her vision. She could finally see where they were meant to be.

Yeriel fought the beast alone, barely a couple of hundreds of metres away; their bodies lying on the floor, and the hole was their way out. But where’s Oscar?

Before she could find more, the light cleared, and she started running.

“Noyar,” Jon called from behind. “Where are you going?”

“You didn’t see?” She asked, not stopping in her run, as if fearing she would forget the way. “Come on, follow me.”

* * *

My head felt heavy as I became conscious. My body felt heavy and powerless. What the fuck happened? Linking with a dominion, didn’t make you think weak as far as I’m concerned.

Still laying on whatever I was, I opened my eyes to find there was not much light in the surroundings, but that was not of my worries. I needed to check if I succeeded or not.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel the power of the Dominion inside me. Yeah, there seemed to be something new inside, a link to a source of infinite power, though only a little of the infinite power was meant to be drawn by mortals. Without further ado, I reached for the power, and in the next moment, my body lurched up in the air.

“What the hell?” I uttered in sheer bewilderment. What I’m supposed to get was the Dominion related to astral projection, but . . . but . . . this is good old gravity.

However, it seemed I’m not too good at controlling the power of the dominion, as my body fell again on an uneven place with my head hitting something rough and hard. I was too powerless to even cry as burning indignation filled my head. Like, what the fuck went wrong? Only the empire has the access to the Dominion of Gravity, but . . .

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! After all the hard work. From getting beaten by that bloody Althan, then getting betrayed, successfully beating a warlock, to getting chased by a godly beast, all that was quite a tall order. Most practitioners didn’t come across all this their whole lives, yet all that happened in the span of two nights. I guess I would just wait for others to find me then. I'm damn sleepy now. Nighty night, Aaron.

Just as I was lost in thoughts, something flew toward me. It was a humanoid silhouette, with a dark cape behind him. Lame, who wore a cape these days? Batman, is that you? No, you can’t be this lame.

The figure slowed down and halted just before me. “Matila, you’re alive,” said the lame man. His voice was not of worry, but of mad glee. “Guess I’ll have the last laugh, after all. I’m going to suck you dry, Matila, to your last breath. Who would've thought you'd have to see this day? You should have agreed with my offer, but . . . Oh well, I guess you wouldn't care after some minute.”

Matila, who’s that? Care to elaborate, Mr Lame Capeman with a weird fetish?

I mean, really, what the fuck is happening now?

‘Poor Aaron, you have no idea of anything, do you?’

‘Hey, who’s that?’ I tried to jerk to find, but there was no one other than the lame cape man, who was still spouting bullshit.

‘Remember Aaron, where were you before this?’ The voice clearly does not belong to the cape man.

‘Who are you?’ I asked, getting paranoid. ‘How do you know me?’

‘Poor Aaron,’ said the voice in a sarcastic pitying tone, ‘you’re so beaten up that you don’t even recognise my voice.’

“After the fall of your god,” the cape man didn’t stop in announcing his nonsense. “We’ll build an eternal kingdom of the night. I fear you won’t be there to see it happen. You must know how heartbroken I am for that, Matila?”

‘This dude needs serious mental help,' said the voice in my head again, and I kind of agree with that. ‘And so do you, Aaron.’

“That’s it. Who the fuck are you?” I yelled in my paranoia.

‘That’s not important, is it Aaron?’ the voice continued. ‘Remember where you were before. You know it, Aaron. Remember what’s important. Wake up, Aaron. Yeriel needs you.’

‘Yeriel,’ that name felt strangely familiar to me. Then things got a little clearer in my head. I remember all the stuff. I need to wake up. Yeriel, she didn’t run away.

I jerked my arms around my body to find something useful, and then my stomach convulsed when my palm fell on my chest. There was a soft mound of meat there. No fucking way!

“Not again!” I muttered as my stomach twisted at the revelation.

“Searching for your Weapon, Mitila?” the cape man said with laughter.

So he was not all crazy, after all. But he was the least of my worries now.

I stopped feeling the breast, which was strangely on my chest, and found a hand knife.

“Congrats, Matila,” the cape man said, clapping his palms. “You found yourself a weapon. What are you going to do with it?”

“Fuck off, fuckface,” I shouted at him and jerked the dagger into my neck without a single hesitation.

I died.

And then, I woke up.