The greater dark spirit floated near the ground beside her master, watching intently as she worked some sort of skill she had attained.
Her master's words were too difficult and ambiguous for the spirit to understand properly, but she did know that her master had finally gotten what she wished for the most, even though it was taken away from her before she could finally meet and reestablish their familiar contract once again. But now, after days of hard work, her master was now about to take another step into the realm of god by taking back the thing she had desired for as long as the dark spirit could remember: family.
Claret understood just how important such a thing was to her master, for she herself had lived with the same constraints as Scarlet had. Vampires were creatures very close to spirits. They were both creatures born from concentrations of mana, and both fed on mana to survive and grow. However, there was a clear divide between the two, with several barriers that would normally keep them separate.
But one of the things that was the same between the two races was that they were born alone, the very idea of a family being foreign to both.
As Claret followed Scarlet around through the years, she came to know and understand the concept, but still felt it was something that had nothing to do withe her as a spirit. On the other hand, she grew to understand that wasn't true for her master, that the vampire she followed even as a lesser spirit developed a deep seated envy over the concept of family. But as she hid amongst the blessed races, her knowledge she had gained of the idea was fragmented, and as races who didn't multiply in the same manner, neither could know where the gaps in their knowledge were.
As the spirit's master grew driven by her fragmented knowledge, as Claret supported her master on her endeavours to the best of her limited knowledge and abilities, they came in contact with members of the mortal races over and over. Scarlet's desires colouring her actions, they were perceived in a way that was convenient for both. While for Claret simply being with her master was enough, she knew that she wasn't able to fill the void that had developed in her master's heart as she watched the blessed races with their families.
Helping the weak, helping the wounded, the spirit knew that it was akin to no more than alms to her heart, yet it couldn't fix her fundamental issue.
The dark spirit, though, hoped that her master getting her own family would finally fulfill the desire that so many others hadn't been able to.
Claret leaned in, hoping to burn into her memory the scene of her master once more doing what others had long considered the impossible.
<Alright, everything looks...!!!>
But her anticipation was betrayed when her master's expression distorted and she raised her hands to her head in pain.
<What is this. I don't get it! It hurts! It hurts! Help me!>
A voice rang in the spirit's head. The source was unmistakably from her master, yet it wasn't a voice she was familiar with. Such a thing shouldn't have been possible. The dark spirit's connection that allowed communicating her thoughts with her master shouldn't have allowed another to barge in unless if they were also contracted to her master as a familiar.
"Aaaahhhh...!"
Scarlet let out a strained cry of pain as she writhed in pain.
"Master! What's wrong! What's happened?!"
Something had gone clearly wrong and emotions swirled in Claret's chest. Panic, fear, worry. She practically choked on them as she strained to understand what had happened to her master.
<It hurts! It hurts! Help! I don't understand what this is! Please! Help!>
Again, that strange voice, like that of a child, echoed through the dark spirit's head. As she did her best to block the voice of the person who didn't matter at the time, Claret's mind ran as fast as it was capable of, observing her master for any hint at what she could do to help.
Scarlet's face grew bright red as her face further distorted in pain as she gasped for breath. The vampire's eyes and fangs returned to their normal colour and shape, leaving her real identity exposed for all to see.
(Her skills are unravelling?! That can only mean...)
In the dark spirit's memories, the only times when a skill can be undone against the will of the user were either when they were interrupted by another, or when the user no longer had the capability to continue using the skill. To the best of Claret's knowledge, there wasn't any creatures nearby that could harm her master in such a way, so the only answer was the latter.
(When a skill was undone because the user couldn't continue to keep it running, most of the time, that meant...)
A memory, despite being centuries old, was as sharp in her mind as if it was only a day old. While feasting on mana treats along with her fellow spirits, Scarlet had gone on her own to check on a presence. She had confirmed it was a weak one compared to herself, so there wasn't a need for the spirits to interrupt their meal.
Yet despite that, a sharp but short lived scream came in the direction her master went. The scream was undoubtedly her master's. As dread filled the dark spirit's heart, she flew as fast as she could after Scarlet. Yet the short distance felt so far to her. That space grew infinitely far the moment the spirit felt her connection with her master disappear, leaving nothing but dread in its place.
When she finally reached her master's location, the only thing she found was a man standing over a pile of ashes and her master's clothes. Claret felt like she was torn in two at that sight. Until she was reunited with her master days before, she had felt that torn half had been lost forever.
Now in front of her, she couldn't help but fear that her master might be taken away from her again.
As fear and panic sharply rose up in the spirit's heart, her master made a desperate move. Her aura, normally suppressed to the point that it was hardly visible anywhere outside of her body, stretched out and above her. The aura pulsed and changed colour, a clear sign of magic being activated, but considering the concentration of her aura and how much of it changed colours, very little water dripped out from the tip. An almost insignificant amount.
Scarlet tried again with a different spell, but almost nothing happened. An amount of magic that would normally be seen by a beginner was the limits of her master, someone who could use magic as if an extension of her body.
And instead of a coherent spell, tendrils grew out from her suppressed aura and whipped around uncontrollably. Quickly the full brunt of the vampire's aura explosively expanded to its natural size, enveloping Claret and driving away all the lesser spirits in terror.
All spirits knew subconsciously the danger of such a powerful, uncontrolled aura. The lesser spirits could easily be killed by a swipe from one of the countless tendrils that grew from the vampire's aura. The only reason why the greater dark spirit wasn't immediately crushed to death inside such a heavy aura was thanks to the fact that her own level that didn't pale significantly to her master's. But...
(It hurts. It hurts, but compared to what Master's going through, this is nothing.)
Claret forcibly pushed through the dense aura and dove at her master who forced herself to her feet in the hopes that she could do something.
But against all expectation, she simply passed right through her master's body, only realizing part of the way, that her master had also lost control of her [Spiritualize] skill, and could no longer be touched by Claret's incorporeal hands.
Slowed to a halt in the thick, viscous aura, Claret turned around to see Scarlet attempting to walk, but not even aware of what she was walking to.
Claret tried once again, but this time activating [Materialize] first, she planted herself behind her master's body, wrapped her harms around her torso, then lifted the vampire into the air and flew into the air.
Staying in that spot wouldn't help her master in the slightest. In fact, it could only bring her harm. If the others woke up before she got better, Scarlet's identity would be immediately exposed. Claret had seen the numerous times when gratitude turned to fear amongst the faces of the blessed races upon learning her master's true race. She wouldn't allow such a mistake to happen here.
In addition, to the dark spirit's thoughts, there was only one thing that she could think of that had a remote chance of helping her master, and that was feeding. But again, feeding on her master's companions would only hurt the gentle vampire, so she had to find something else.
She hoped to find some of those imps that she kept seeing the day before. They probably wouldn't make a very good meal, but it was better than nothing.
She flew, skimming close to the surface of the rocky hills as she carried her master. Within seconds of cresting one of the hills, something came flying at high speeds towards the duo. The spirit's [Danger Sense] blared out in warning, but in her distracted state, she just barely reacted it in time. Claret veered sharply to the side, but even then she only managed to avoid a direct blow, and instead the attack grazed her side.
But it was enough, and as her arm snapped like a twig, Claret lost her grip on her master, allowing her to tumble to the ground as the dark spirit looked in horror.
In desperation, Claret started a dive down to try to catch her master, but something flew at her again. This time she had enough awareness of her situation to properly react to her [Danger Sense] and avoided the strike.
As the thing whizzed by, she got a quick glance at what was about to strike her. It was a large rock as big as her head. Following its trajectory back to its source, she laid eyes on a large, grey/brown appendage gripping another rock of similar size, readying it to be thrown. That appendage, as she followed it down, was a tail, and while its root was under water and thus not clearly visible.
Or rather than simply water, it was a small lake at the base of a crater-like valley. The front half of the beast had surfaced. At the end of its wide body sprouted nine long snake-like tendrils that each ended with a lizard's head.
Claret grimaced at the sight of the hydra, a monster strong enough that even she would normally not want to be near if she had a choice. Even in the best of times she would consider it a difficult fight, but now, with an arm that bent where it shouldn't and while guarding her master who was currently incapable of fighting, even thinking of fighting the monster felt like it was boarding on suicide.
"Screeeee!!!"
A loud, blood-curling screech emanated from below. Claret glanced down, and looked at the lake shore where Scarlet had fallen. Underneath hear body was a large splatter of blood, with the upper body of an imp protruding from underneath as it squirmed and screeched for a few moments before growing still.
One after the next, the sounds of imps screaming in response echoed all around the spirit as her emotions plummeted at the realization of what she was facing. The hydra had split its attention between the two, and at the same time, imps started pouring over the canyon walls.
To make matters worse, as the dark spirit glanced at the imps slowly flooding the lake in retribution over their fallen comrade, her gaze moved to the sky.
(Nononono! Not this too!)
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