Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 64: (Raorka) Old Magik

Everyone became oddly quiet after the Knight introduced herself. The phrase "Emperor Knight" didn’t mean anything to Raorka, but he could see that it to everyone else, including the usually unflappable Artemis.

"What is an Emperor Knight doing so far out from the Capital?" She asked warily. Raorka saw that she had covered her ears with a cloak.

Vermillion looked towards them, seemingly for the first time.

"Now that’s a funny story you know." She started. "I was actually mobilized for one of your far off neighbors. The Mayor Ja of Odania expected some sort of rebellion or what not, and asked the King personally for help."

"The King lends help to far off Mayors?" Raorka asked bewildered.

Vermillion looked at him, and Raorka noticed that her eyes were of two different colors.

"New here, aren’t you?" She asked with a smile, though there didn’t seem to be any malice in her words.

"Anyway," She turned back, addressing Artemis, disregarding the screams of pain from the Demon in the background. "I was on my way to Odania to lend the support of the Crown, when I felt the magik of a named Demon here. And you know the Crown policy, slaying named Demons take priority over all other tasks. Including protecting some far off Mayor."

"Slaying ha! You’ll be slaying nothing!!" The cry came from inside the continuing barrage of exploding coins. The Demon of Lust inside was no longer recognizable. Her skin had been burned off, and although it was regenerating, it wasn’t regenerating fast enough. The barrage of coins were inflicting far more damage on her per second than she could possibly regenerate.

Vermillion looked at the firestorm surrounding the Demon with satisfaction and then turned back towards them.

"You know how you beat someone who can’t be killed?" She asked.

Raorka opened his mouth to answer, but she held up her hand. "It was a rhetorical question new guy."

"Well what’s the answer then?" Raorka asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Well easy. You make them not want to live anymore. You inflict so much pain on them, that even if they regenerate, they are just coming back to more pain. You inflict despair on them through torture." The Knight’s face became dead serious as she completed it, and Raorka felt a chill when he looked at how ruthless she now looked.

And she was putting her words to practice.

Despite the fact that the Demon of Lust was regenerating all her wounds, Raorka could see that the coins were being shot by Vermillion in a way so as to inflict maximum pain. So as to cause maximum damage. In fact, some of the Demon’s body parts had to stop regenerating to focus on more vital parts. For example Vermillion concentrated her barrage mostly towards the eyes of the Demon. To protect them, to regenerate the damaged eye sockets, the Demon of Lust was focusing most of her energy there, meaning that she couldn’t regenerate her burned chest nor her stump of an arm.

She’s doing it.

We can kill her now!

Raorka stepped forward excitedly, only to be stopped by a firm hand by Artemis. He looked up at her quizzically.

"Don’t. You can’t keep up with an Emperor Knight. Not yet."

Raorka slumped back, disappointed. "What is an Emperor Knight anyway?"

"The best of the best. The strongest warriors of this Kingdom. The personal force of the King himself. Some argue that a single Emperor Knight is equivalent to a whole battalion of normal mages. They are monsters."

Raorka looked back at the exploding coins. Artemis was right, Vermillion did seem a cut above anyone else he had encountered yet. To be able to dominate a named Demon like this was no joke. Raorka remembered how easily the Demon of Lust had defeated them, and his respect for the Emperor Knight only grew.

I want to fight like that. To dominate, destroy my opponent no matter who it is.

Raorka’s attention was broken by a chilling shriek from within the firestorm. He concentrated inside. At first he thought it meant the Demon was finally dying, but that was not what was happening. The Demon of Lust stood still inside the coinstorm now, not attempting to struggle or block or even regenerate. Instead she seemed to be chanting some incantation in a foreign language, in high pitched shrieks. Raorka looked towards the Emperor Knight. Her face was scrunched up, but she made no move to get up from her chair or change her strategy. She just kept bombarding her with coins.

"What is she doing?" Raorka asked, looking up at Artemis. The elf looked as bewildered as he was.

"Demons are older than the planet, that much is true. They have a lot of incantations that we haven’t yet discovered, or that we have forgotten. Maybe she is using one of those."

Raorka looked back inside the cloud of exploding coins. The Demon’s body was almost completely destroyed now. Both her arms had been burned off. Her eyeballs were also melted off, leaving behind empty sockets. Half her face was skeletal, and the other half contained just bones. Yet her vocal chord remained intact, and her chanting grew more and more shrill. Raorka saw a cloud of purple energy gather up at her feet.

It happened in a flash.

One moment the Demon of Lust was standing still in the midst of the bombardment of coins, and the next she vanished. There was no explosion, no force, no nothing. Just an instant she was standing there, and the next she was gone.

Vermillion realized it immediately as well, for she stopped her bombardment, a dark look on her face.

"Damn it!" She whispered.

"What happened?" Raorka asked Artemis, who had a similar grave look on her face.

"The Demon of Lust escaped."

"Teleportation?"

Artemis nodded. "An old magik, and one which leaves it’s caster completely defenseless when being incanted. But I guess that was the only option left to the Demon anyway at this points."

Raorka looked again at the charred ground where the Demon had stood. The repeated bombing by Vermillion had destroyed the ground as well, leaving behind thousands of small craters all around.

"She won’t be back. At least not soon." Artemis said reassuringly.

Raorka nodded, although he wasn’t completely at peace. If the Demon attacked them again, the next time they probably could not count of the assistance of one of the strongest warriors in the Kingdom.

I need to get at least to that level.

Raorka looked up. To his left Jareth was supporting the injured Drisnen as he led him outside. He noticed Raorka’s gaze and nodded at him.

"I’ll take him to the local hospital. We’ll have townspeople swarming this area soon anyway."

Raorka nodded.

Before leaving Jareth looked back one final time and said, "Maris and Rowena went to the underground area of the palace. You’ll find Lucerne there."

"Thank you."

Jareth nodded and then left, supporting the now unconscious Drisnen on his shoulder.

Raorka looked ahead. The Emperor Knight had stood up and it seemed was getting ready to leave.

"Wait!" Raorka called out, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

"I’m on a schedule new guy. This Demon was never my mission. Even though I want to pursue and end her once and for all, I need to go to Odania, preferably before the Mayor is dead there."

"How did you get this strength?"

Vermillion stopped in her tracks. She looked again at Raorka.

"You don’t know what an Emperor Knight is do you?"

"Well I know they...or rather you are the strongest magik users in this Kingdom."

Vermillion shook her head. "That’s not how an Emperor Knight is chosen. An Emperor Knight is one who has accomplished something no other magik user before them has accomplished."

"And you did? You achieved something no one previous to you has?"

Vermillion smiled. "Of course."

"What?"

"Tell you what. Come to the Capital. We could use soldiers like you in our corps. Come there and maybe I’ll tell you my legend."

Saying this Vermillion winked and in an instant she was off, running at fearsome speed towards the exit of the town. Raorka watched her go, until the smoke from her running was no longer visible. Artemis stood beside him, watching the Emperor Knight to with an unreadable expression.

"Be careful of Emperor Knights, Raorka. They aren’t as noble or good as they would like you to believe."

"But they are strong. Without Vermillion, we would have been killed by the Demon today."

Artemis said quiet for a while, looking out at the horizon. When she finally spoke, her voice contained an emotion Raorka had never heard before.

"Run after strength for too long, and you may find yourself changed irreversibly. And not always in a positive way."

Raorka was about to respond, when he noticed a small figure coming out from below them. He couldn’t distinguish who it was at first, but the figure came closer, and Raorka recognized it as Rowena.

She was waving at them. Raorka looked towards Artemis and she nodded. Taking a deep breathe, Raorka jumped and started sliding down the broken rocks and cliff towards Rowena, Artemis just behind him.