The Soul Keeper

I released my magic and created a wall of flames just before the lightning strike hit me, while quickly turning to face my opponent.

A swordsman, wearing simple leather armour, and a sorcerer in white robes stood at the entrance. 

As my flames subsided, our gazes locked. 

"Kai?" Asher asked, his face white as a sheet of paper. "You-" His gaze leapt between the corpses of the Ereth soldiers, the destroyed Divine pillar and me. "What have you done?" He whispered as his gaze focused on my flames, still dancing on the ground. "What have you become?"

I froze – this wasn't how I wanted this to go. I didn't want to start off with distrust and fear.

"Asher," My gaze leapt to Lucius, standing next to the blond sorcerer. "Lucius." 

"Why?" The young swordsman asked in shock. "Why would you kill the Ereth? Why would you destroy the first rebuilt Divine Pillar?" He clenched his fists. "Didn't you die to protect it?" His voice cracked as he shouted.

I let my sword disappear in a shroud of darkness – a result of my interface no longer being powered by the Divine Pillars. 

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I died because of it." I pointed at the pool of dried blood at the centre of the symbol on the ground. "I died right there, and it wasn't a demon who did it!"

Both of them hesitated – of course they would, what I said directly contradicted everyone else's words. "It was all a trap," I explained, "All of it. As soon as I stepped inside, a barrier covered this place." My gaze focused on Asher. "You should know, Asher. You must have felt the connection sever."

He hesitated then lowered his extended arm. The lightning gathered in his palm disappeared. "I did feel it sever. But I wasn't sure why." His voice was filled with uncertainty.

"It was a Divine." I said, gesturing at the now destroyed Divine Pillar. "Why else would a demon leave the pillar here after killing me? There was never a demon to begin with."

Lucius looked like he wanted to tell me something, but he kept his silence.

"Which Divine?" Asher asked after a short while. 

"I don't know her name." I described what she looked like. "She is Alina's patron." As I spoke that traitor's name, my face twisted with anger for only a moment. 

Asher's eyes widened. "Wait – you mean…?"

I nodded. "She betrayed me." I almost spit the words out. "She and Joshua planned this from the very beginning." 

I could see their hesitation. How they didn't want to believe my words. They were conflicted – it was natural, but it still pissed me off.

"Why would she do that?" Asher asked after a moment of silence. "What did she have to gain from that?"

I took a deep breath. "She claimed it was revenge for Samantha's death. But honestly? I don't care."

Asher flinched. "What?"

"I don't care." My eyes flashed purple with anger. "I don't care about her, or Joshua, or Aelith or the other Divine." Purple flames danced on my skin. "I will get back what was stolen from me – all of it." I glared at them. "And I will kill anyone who gets in my way." Our gazes met. "Anyone." 

Silence followed my words. Asher opened his mouth, then closed it again, clearly at a loss for words. Instead, it was Lucius who broke the silence. "Ok." He said, letting his sword disappear. "Where do we start?"

A faint, bitter smile appeared on my lips. "First of all, we leave this place."

The young swordsman nodded. "Let's go then." He poked Asher with his elbow. "What about you? What will you do?"

The blonde sorcerer blinked a few times, then sighed. "Well, you're definitely not getting rid of me, that's for sure." He glanced at the Ereth. "What happened to their souls?"

I tilted my head towards where the Divine Pillar's light used to be. "Sucked away into the light. It's better that way." I didn't want to have the souls of Ereth within me. Demons made things difficult enough.

We soon left the ruins and headed south, closer to Ereth territory. We didn't fly, we weren't in a rush. Asher and Lucius both seemed lost in thought as I led the way.

I did feel bad for getting those two involved. But I needed allies. Despite the tough guy act I'd put on earlier, taking this revenge wasn't something I could do alone. Not at my current level of power.

"What happened to the telepathic link thing you two shared?" Lucius finally asked as we set up camp by a small, shallow lake. I couldn't really give an answer to that, all I knew was that it was gone.

"Good question." Asher hesitated. "Kai, take your shirt off."

I flinched while Lucius' eyes widened. "The hell, Asher!" He shrieked. "I didn't know you were-"

"Shut up, the mark is on his back, between his wings." He glared at me. "Come on, don't turn this into something weird."

I couldn't help but laugh, especially at Lucius' reaction.

"Right, right." I took of my shirt as he asked and turned my back towards them. "Well?"

Silence followed my question. Feeling somewhat anxious, I glanced at them over my shoulder. "Guys?"

Lucius shook his head. "Well, I guess that explains it." He glanced at Asher, who nodded. "You didn't tell me you were quite literally impaled. And… burned… and cut…" His voice faded. "The hell happened to you?" He shouted finally.

"All of those," I replied with a grin as I put my shirt back on. "And more, but that's not the subject. How bad is it?"

Asher just shook his head. Honestly, even that wasn't needed – his expression and dropped shoulders explained enough. "It's nearly completely destroyed – I could barely recognise it."

Lucius nodded. "Yeah, it's barely even there." He glanced at Asher. "Can't you recast the spell?"

The blonde sorcerer shook his head. "No, a sorcerer can only cast that once, or so the skill's description says. Maybe if I reach a very high level I could do it again but…" His voice faded as he just shrugged.

To my surprise, I also felt a little saddened. Despite the annoyance of constantly being aware of where he was, the telepathic link had proven to be incredibly useful throughout the time we used it. It'd saved my life more than once, allowing me to try dangerous things with little risk.

"It's fine." I said with a sigh as another thought occurred. "I think this way is safer for you anyways." I said, glancing at Asher. The blonde sorcerer raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" He asked as we sat on the lush green grass. I hesitated, what was the best way to explain this?

"I'm pretty sure you've noticed by now." I said as I raised my hand to the level of my chest. A purple flame appeared. "That I'm a demon is what I mean."

Asher sighed. "Well, that was already obvious." He glanced at Lucius, who was nodding. "The second we noticed you could read and speak demonic, we knew you had to be a demon – I even told you then; I'd have killed you right then and there if Lucius didn't know you from the real world."

I chuckled. "Oh, that happened, didn't it?" How had I forgotten? Well, that was a dumb question. "My memory isn't too good, so yeah…" I mumbled. 

"Is it because of the souls?" Lucius' worry was audible in his voice. I hesitated, was it a good idea to tell him about this? No, there was no need to worry him even more. There was nothing anyone could do about this anyways.

"I don't know, maybe it's simply because I, well, died, you know." I chuckled. Even as I lied, I could feel Asher's judging stare – he knew I wasn't telling the truth. He knew I was hiding something from him.

"I see," Lucius said as his shoulders dropped. I felt guilty, but it was better than putting the weight of that knowledge on his shoulders. That was something I could carry alone. I needed everyone else to focus on their tasks.

"Now," I said, changing the subject. "Moving forward, we need a plan." I glanced at Asher. "First of all, where is Mona?"

"She stayed behind to keep an eye on Erik, as her patron asked her to do so." Asher replied. "She wanted to come though."

I shook my head. "It's better this way. She's a good person but a pretty terrible liar." They both chuckled, the heavy atmosphere from before seemed to have completely scattered. 

"So, what exactly is our goal?" Asher asked.

I took a deep breath. "First of all, I need my powers back – my scythe and the souls the Divine stole from me." A wicked grin appeared on my lips as I spoke. "So, here is the plan;"