Solar Mage

Chapter 64: Black Blood Parasite

My head swings back to Dustin as I hear him scream out in a terrifying screech that, I imagine, could only come from a demon hailing from the depths of hell, filling the entire room, seemingly coming from all directions.

"GHH'RYYYLLAAAA-SZ'KTH!!!!"

AAAGH!! My ears!

I shut my eyes, immediately covering my ears, and suddenly feeling a weakness in my legs, as I fall down, crouching in pain.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!"

An angry voice screams, cutting through the horrifying screech of the demon, that strikes more fear in me than the demonic screech.

Unable to even hear my thoughts, I am forced to scream even in my mind.

I'M TRYING TO SAVE MY EARDRUMS, WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO, YOU CREEPY, ALL-KNOWING BASTARD!!

"GET OVER HERE ALREADY!!!"

The keeper continued to scream.

WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT? MY WORK IS DONE–

SHIT, I DO HAVE MORE WORK TO DO, I STILL HAVE TO BURN IT TO DEATH AFTER IT LEAVES THE BODY, OR IT'LL JUST LATCH ONTO ANOTHER PERSON!!

I quickly get off my lazy ass and start running. Opening my eyes, but still keeping my hands on my ears, I difficultly, struggle while looking around to find the location of the shadows, discombobulated by the deafening noises entering my ears.

Damn it, where are they?

Still in a disoriented state of blurry vision, I squint my eyes to try and see better, looking for the dark colors of the shadows' clothing in the completely white room.

YOU KNOW, ONE WOULD THINK THAT IT WOULD BE EASY TO FIND A SPLASH OF BLACK IN A SEA OF WHITE, BUT JUST RUNNING IS ENOUGH TO COMPLETELY LOSE MY SENSE OF DIRECTION. THIS BLURRY VISION IS DEFINITELY NOT HELPING EITHER!!!

"GET OVER HERE!!"

WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!?!

"ARTHUR!!!"

I should hurry up though, he's a little scary... Let's see, if running is making me lose my sense of direction, and is the major problem, then I just need to not run.

I abruptly stop in place, dropping my hands from my ears and closing my eyes, waiting, and waiting for the moment.

"ARTHUR!!!!"

There it is!!!

I keep my arms to my side, and eyes closed as I start running, directed and only running from the direction I heard the keeper's terrifying voice from.

God, his voice is terrifying, I hope I don't accidentally run into any of them.

I keep running until my instincts, that I had been unable to read through the puzzling, endless demonic scream, warn me enormously of an extreme danger in front of me.

Stop now! I'm here!

I swing open my eyes, and bring my run to a stop, staring in horror down at the screaming patient directly below me.

Damn, I almost just hit an ill patient, thank you instincts! But, Dustin really looks like a demon right now, his eyes are completely red and he's twitching his body so much and so randomly, it's as if ants were just suddenly appearing on his body and suddenly disappearing from his body the second he tries to swat it!

"STAY CAUTIOUS, THIS IS NOT DUSTIN. YOU NEED TO KILL THE PARASITE THE MOMENT IT LEAVES DUSTIN'S BODY, OR TWO MEN WILL DIE HERE TODAY!"

The keeper screams out in impatience and fear, while actually struggling to hold Dustin's chest down, along with the other shadows who restrain his limbs on the cracking, luxury, wood operating table.

Why do I have to do it? Why can't he do it? He's much stronger than me and even tamed a phoenix! Also, what does he mean by two men?

My discontent and slight annoyance is brought to an end by the sudden resolution of Dustin's petrifying demonic screech, his body stops moving, returning to a more unconscious state.

What? Is it over? I would say thank god, but I should still be cautious like the shadow said.

Contrasting my thoughts, I weaken my wariness and look over to the shadow who, just like me, starts to turn his head to me, from looking down at Dustin. But unlike me, he had a horror-stricken look on his face, when we caught each other's gaze.

What's with that look on his face? It's not like the treatment failed, he stopped screaming! Wait, did it fail?

I start to turn my head back down to Dustin, just as the Keeper starts to open his mouth.

"DON'T BE FOOLED–"

Is Dustin's neck bulging, or is that just me?

"THE PARASITE IS–"

The bulge on Dustin's neck gets bigger and bigger, as something travels up his throat.

What the hell is that–

"NOT GONE!!!"

The parasite is revealed as the keeper's sentence ends, a dark red, worm-like thing, with a mouth, if you could even call it that, full of rows of repulsive teeth, like a death leech from hell. It springs out of Dustin's mouth and in just a few moments, once it fully exits, my face immediately turning into disgust, my nose wrinkles and eyebrows furrow.

What the hell is that disgusting creature? Damn, that thing is disgusting, but I have to take care of it now!

Just as I try to cast Dawn to shoot it dead in one shot in one go, the unbelievably fast parasite jumps at the shadow holding Dustin's right arm, before my Dawn orb even finishes forming, at the moment, just being a single, tiny spiral of fire.

What the hell? How is it so fast? I made an oath to make sure Dustin doesn't die, but now someone else is about to die right now because of my weakness! If I just let the parasite take him, I will be unable to prove to myself, and more importantly, that shadow, that I treasure life!

I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!!!

The orb of Dawn finishes forming, but instead of trying to shoot the parasite with it, I direct the Dawn at myself, shooting at my Manaheart. But instead of the solar blast exiting through the other side of my body, it stays inside. In that moment, another, much hotter and orange ring appears around my mana heart, running much faster than the other circles, while my body instantly sets ablaze, from the top of my hair, to the bottom of my feet, the rags on me immediately burning, and crumbling into nothing as the dense orange flames replace it, so dense that not a single part of my body could be seen through it.

While the Keeper stands still, looking at the situation in horror, unable to do anything.

***

The Keeper closes his eyes filled with fear, but a small hope remains.

Damn it Arthur, you have to do something! If you let this man die, I cannot give you my treasures! Please, please don't let Luke's legacy be wasted!

When the Keeper's eyes reopen, his eyes light up, as all his fear washes away.

Yes– Luke, your sacrifice was not for naught, your legacy has fallen into the hands of a worthy successor... Sigh, I guess I'm down sixty thousand platinum coins now. I should give it a rest as well, just find a successor and retire like you.

***

In the next moment, just as the death leech latches onto the, still, shadow, that drops Dustin's hand and stands unmoving, accepting his fate like a true warrior's heroic death, I appear, my mind in state of madness, after pouncing from where I previously stood, and rip off the parasite from the shadow's body, my hand only leaving the dense flame for second before it returns and disappears in the blazing flame.

Immediately noticing the disturbance, the shadow opens his eyes and jumps back, along with all the other shadows who leave the vicinity. The only one who has yet to move, being the keeper, who closes his eyes, smiling to himself as he continues to stand beside Dustin.

The shadow in front, however, keeps moving back, as even in my unconscious, mad state, I move away from Dustin.

After getting a suitable distance away from him, the dense orange flame erupts once again, increasing to the size filling half of the entire estate, continuing to expand even more, I fly up into the sky, a giant pillar of fire as wide as the entire estate, shoots out. The top of the pillar, as high as a mountain, its peak, insurmountable.

The temperature discharging into the air from the pillar's surface is great, however, inside, it is even greater, filled with the rage of a madman.

DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU COULD TAKE SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE IN FRONT OF ME, AGAIN?!?!!!

I hold the squirming parasite tightly in my hands, as it tries to squirm out, and even at times, try to bite me.

DIE!!!

The fire around my hands starts to become lighter, a lighter orange, into white.

Damn it, I want to kill this thing, but even with my hottest, white flame, this disgusting parasite seems to be affected by the white fire more than the orange fire, but it just doesn't melt fast enough!! I am able to keep it locked in place right now, but my rage is leaving me, along with my energy! I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up.

My hands start to weaken, giving the parasite room to squirm, as I am forced to cede it more space, before I notice and grip it even tighter, using even more energy.

Where the hell are you, shadow? You always yell at me and give me advice, but where the hell are you now?!?!

I begin to lose hope, my arms weakening once again, before I push back, and squeeze the putrid parasite even harder.

What the hell are you doing Arthur? Since when have you ever depended on people? You are the greatest genius, not the greatest follower! If you can't figure something out, then just think harder!

Like a miracle from god, I notice an object shrouded in a blinding, divine-like light, shining from my chest.

What the hell?

I glance down, and my serious eyes light up in joy and greed as I look at it.

That's right– I have the Phoenix Feather! And if everything was planned out by fate, and the shadow has yet to come to save me, I must be following the correct path! That means this Phoenix Feather is the key to my success here. But how do I use it?

I smirk to myself, though still conscious of the strength used to keep the parasite still.

Well there's only one way isn't there? I must hold it! And absorb the mana, or something like that.

In a confident leap of faith, I release one hand from the parasite to grab the Phoenix Feather, while the parasite immediately reacts and tries to escape from my grasp. Even though I threw out the idea of the conservation of my energy and used it all to squeeze the parasite with my right hand as hard as possible, the parasite still makes progress squirming out my hold.

Looks like it's not enough. I want to go faster, but since I've already used all my energy on my right hand, and the artificial 4th circle I've implanted into my Manaheart is disappearing, I'm afraid I won't be able to last much longer.

Am I afraid though?

I grab ahold of the Phoenix Feather and hold it tightly, it's warm, almost hot mana seeping into me, and spreading throughout my body, supplying me with all my mana, and more.

Of course not.

The white fire returns back to its vibrant orange counterpart, however, the temperature has not dropped, rather, it has increased by twofold, and continues to rise by the second, while the parasite, for the first time since leaving Dustin's body, screams it's pathetic demonic screech, blackening, and crumbling to dust.

So long, you dirty parasite.