Edmonte's Story by Kazen II Kad (book recommendations for young adults TXT) 📖

caging the man’s spirit,” I told.

“Let me check,” Master Raul said and did so. “I can’t sense nor see that other spirit. Are you sure it’s there?”

“Yes. It’s not like any of the spirit we’ve come across before.”

“Then my suspicious is correct,” another voice joined in. It was from the mercenary. “You must’ve sensed the demon-spirit within the man. I already notice its presence when I enter this room but I could not differentiate if the demon-spirit is the man’s guardian or the one in control of the host body. So you say the demon-spirit caged the man’s spirit, eh?”

“Yes,” I said, although I had no idea what he meant by demon-spirit or what.

“Dane, if you please,” the mercenary said to the other mange in the room who nodded and began chanting an incantation which encircled the prisoner in a light barrier. Then, the mercenary positioned himself in front of the prisoner. “Now, who are you?”

“Lindsay…,” the prisoner began to say only to be cut off by the mercenary.

“I’m not talking about the host’s identity; I want to know yours.”

The prisoner was silence for a while and when he did answer, his voice was quite different from the one used before. “Please, don’t kill me and let me be in this body. I’m going to borrow this body until I can find a way to return to my world.”

“I’m not going to let you do that unless he is really your master. Beside, there has never been any case of demon-spirit returning to their realm. I should know because my clan has been living with demon-spirit for centuries.”

“But if I leave this body, I might disintegrate into nothingness.”

“Who told you that?”

“The man who summons me into this world told me.”

“That’s totally absurd. You can’t kill a demon-spirit unless you destroy its essence and nobody has the power to do that so can you release the man now? I promise not to harm you if you do that.”

The demon-spirit was quiet for a while before he agreed to release the man. First, a white light engulfed the man, then, when the light disappeared; the man slumped to the floor unmoving. The mercenary informed the other that the demon-spirit had gone out of the prisoner’s body and one of the guards went to check the prisoner’s pulse to see if the man was still alive. There was a pulse and with that the current situation came under control or so I thought.

“Hey, kid. Thanks for helping out,” the mercenary told me. “I’m Kasheel of Zamos Clan, currently with Mecor. You can call me Kash. What’s your name?”

“Edmonte – Ed for short. I’m a necromancer trainee.”

“You seem to be able to sense demon-spirit or are that part of necromancy?”

“No, we don’t have that kind of technique nor spell in necromancy,” Master Raul supplied. “You think he has potential to be a demon-bearer?”

“Let’s see…Say, can you see my demon-spirit?” Kash turned back to me.

I let my gaze wonder to where I could sense the two demon-spirits – Yes, I could sense two demon-spirits with the mercenary. I used necromancy to heighten my senses. However, all I could muster was their presences and not their physical materialization. “No, I can only sense their presence there,” I told as I pointed to the place where I suspected them to be.

Kash was silent. “Well, I guess being a necromancer makes you very sensitive to spirit presences including those of demon-spirit.”

I did not reply. In truth, I did not know how to reply back. I had no idea what those demon-spirit or demon-bearer were all about and I did not remember if I ever came across them during my research on magic back then. Fortunately, I was spare the need to answer when Master Raul voiced his desired to return home. Thus, after bidding everyone farewell, we went out of Estrey Regional Troop Headquarter.

Master Raul did not talk about what happened a few moments ago. We usually did not talk about any business or task that we had just accomplished because it was no use dwelling on the past. Master Raul also did not mentioned about the demon-spirit stuff either because he chose not to discuss the matter, or he lacked the knowledge on the matter. Either way, it had nothing to do with me nor necromancy anyway since I probably would not encounter matter concerning demon-spirit again. Of course, one could not predict the future and I could not have guess I would be meeting another demon-spirit that would became my own.

At that time, Master Raul was away out of Bedin on business and I was left alone to take care of the house and to receive any request from client. Master Raul also left me with a long list of instruction on my magic training and I was busy copying notes when I felt a distortion on the barrier Master Raul put around the premise. Strange enough, the bell did not jingle to announce the presence so I went up to see what was going on.

The silence of night greeted me when I reached up the stair. I noticed shadow scurrying around outside my field of vision though I ignored them. My main aim was to find out about the presences which now I could identify as the same type as the one back at the trooper headquarters. I went towards the direction of the presences in one of the rooms and was not expected to see what I was about to see; there was a swarm of butterflies in the room – there were not normal butterflies because they were glowing and their silver and gold streak black wings were sprinkling gold dust as they flapped around. The sight of them stunned me where I stood until a voice spoke in my mind.

“Are you the master of this place?” the voice was coming from one butterfly which was bigger then the other – its body was one foot long and its wings spanned as wide as the window frame. I could even see its beady amber eyes.

“No, this is my master place though our dwelling is just in the basement. Are you a demon-spirit?”

“Yes, these are my children. Is it fine for us to stay here? There’s no other place which can accommodate my big family?”

“It’s actually not my place to discuss this but I’m sure my master would not mind. He won’t notice you guys anyway. Just don’t ever wander down to the basement. Okay?”

“Yes, and thank you,” the demon-spirit agreed, so I returned back downstairs.

The conversation with the demon-spirit was rather short. I could have ask more about matter concerning demon-spirit but at that time I was concern more about my training in necromancy. Moreover, the incident that night should have told me something about my potential as a demon-bearer. Well, nobody could understand something they were not familiar with, right? That was until Lieutenant Luciel came looking for me for a bit of an assistance.

Right; Lieutenant Luciel did not ask for Master Raul, he asked for me. Master Raul just let me go with the trooper without much protest. I thought we were going to the trooper headquarters but that was not the case. In fact, Lieutenant took me to a deeper section of the slum district to another dilapidated house no different than that of Master Raul’s. We entered the house and I saw four other people with an older one inside a ward circle. I recognized Dane and Kash while the other young man was undoubtedly a demon-bearer judging from the sight of a glowing white wolf by his side.

“Ed, can you check him?” Kash asked, straight to the point as he pointed the man in the ward circle.

I did and told him the result. “Yes, he’s the same as the other one.”

“Right…,” Kash said as he turned towards the man for the interrogation. However, before he could proceed with it, the man began to struggle and a black mist engulfed him. Once the most disappeared, what stood in the man’s place was a creature with a bird’s head and a bulky man’s body.

I found out that when a demon-spirit assimilated with its host, it would lose its ability of invisibility. Now, it could be see even by Lieutenant Luciel and Dane. It could also be susceptible to normal attacks as it was bounced back by the barrier I erected around myself when it tried to charged me – I was probably the weakest one there and it chose me as first victim. The white wolf and Kash’s pair of horned wolves took the opportunity to pounce on the creature and tore it with claws and fangs until the creature ceased moving.

“So that’s what happen when a demon-spirit taken over a body,” I said.

“Yes, it’ll devour the host spirit. Don’t worry; it won’t happen under normal circumstances. By the way, my name’s Kyle. So you’re the necromancer named Ed who got potential to be a demon-bearer.”

“Kyle, he’s not a demon-bearer. He can only sense their presences,” Kash interjected.

“Are you sure? Can you see my demon-spirit, boy?” Kyle asked me and my gazed turned instantly to the white wolf.

“Why does your white wolf doesn’t have horns like Kash’s brown wolves?” I asked instead.

“What? You can see them now?” Kash asked in surprised.

“I think his ability just awakened when you met him,” Kyle told the mercenary. “You see, demon-spirit could be categorized into two: Noble and Royal. Noble is when they materialized into one type of animal, while Royal is when they materialized into a combination of two or many types of animals. Anyway, Ed, you’re definitely a demon-bearer so have you ever seen any other demon-spirit lately?”

“Not that I’ve noticed,” I answered.

“Well, if you ever found yourself being follows persistently by a demon-spirit, it might be that it wants to have you as master.”

“Okay…, but why would I want to have a demon-spirit anyway?”

My question silenced Kyle for a while. He took a glance at Kash who shrugged in reply. “I guess different people have different reason to acquire a demon-spirit. I have mine to stop other demon-spirit from pestering me relentlessly,” Kyle said.

“Eh?” I got confused over his words.

“Kyle has a rare ability to attract demon-spirit. In fact he got himself three Nobles to guard him,” Kash explained. “As for me, the clan where I came from co-existed with demon-spirits for centuries and generations so it’s kind of a tradition for clansman to bond with a demon-spirit. I’ve mine when I was twelve.”

“That is to say, I can choose not to form any bond with any demon-spirit?” I came to that conclusion after hearing their explanation, which brought another silence to both Kash and Kyle. “Well, if there’s nothing more, I would like to return to Master Raul’s place,” I informed.

“Wait,” Lieutenant Luciel said as he fumbled with the pouch attached to his belt and produced two pieces of gold coins from it.