To Rewrite A War

Chapter 3: Beyond The Arcanum

Let it be known that Ash was a coward. Ten years of his life being the idolized and feared by all of The Five Arcana, and he was a coward still. That cowardness was what drove him into such desperation that allowed him to live through a war. That desperation was what pushed him through, the fear was what allowed him to survive against the whole world. It didn't matter how much stronger the angels, demons and insidians he had fought, it hardly mattered at all the grueling methods of which he had used to defeat and kill those who tried to kill him, his fight or flight mode would sooner be activated than he could draw any weapon he had on standby. So it didn't matter if he'd killed a shit ton of this type of low-level insidian in his first life, the mere sight of them was enough to draw a full body shudder out of him.

And when Astaroth waved a hand in the air, a giant scythe materializing out of thin air in a whiff of dark smoke, all Ash did was step aside and allow the demon to do his job. In this case, it was to kill the thing for him. Do not get him wrong, he knew there was a form of racism when it concerned the differences between the Arcana, and for Ash who was a human passively fighting racism among his own kin, should have disliked the stereotype and hatred among the different Arcana. It was a shame that nearly all of them had tried to have him killed at least once. He'd been robbed before, but nothing as serious as being given a poison, shot at the knee, stabbed in the belly and so on and so forth. He'd be damn generous to say that he tolerated their existence instead of simply despising them as he rightfully should. And seeing Astaroth, the same demon that had broken into his house, swinging his scythe faster than the human eyes could see, and with one fell swoop, decapitated the insidian's head, the same insidian who had shattered all of his glass and possibly his eardrums, there was nothing but complete support in his heart.

How could he not, when the little maw of terror was seconds away from having its next meal, him? How could he not, when the very saliva of the thing that dropped onto the floor, had sizzled and burned through his carpet? How could he not, when even after death, the creature shrieked and struggled and shattered more of his furniture, spewing its acidic saliva all around the room and blood the colour of purple sprayed to all over the walls, ruining the sigil formations?

He'd rather have it dead more than anything.

There was no hero complex here. In the end, he was just a normal human they'd kidnapped and claimed to be mentioned in the prophecy, a human who had been a normal student living his life watching movies and eating chips on his couch on Saturday nights.

Fuck the prophecy and all that it brought.

Now came the more disturbing issue. The insidian was very much dead, that was something great. Cool. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful. And then the corpse was still very much there, laying on his carpet, his currently sizzling to destruction carpet, oozing purple blood that was too acidic to touch, drooling black saliva that was poisonous, and making the entire living room look like it came out of a stimulation game.

"You....You're not going to leave it here, are you?" Ash dared himself to glance at the demon Astaroth, who was busy wiping his scythe with what looked to be his clothes. Obviously made out of special material, with how it wasn't yet burned off from all the blood on it. The demon hummed in question as he twirled around to face him, surprise and confusion coloring his face. Like he didn't think that Ash would still be there. Like he forgot he was there in the first place. When the realization looked to be sinking in, he immediately look flustered.

What a demon, to be flustered this way.

"No no! Of course not! Raguel would have my head! But more than that, I have to bring it as proof, you know. That I caught it. People get paranoid at times, they'd want to see the body before confirming that it's dead. The nobles are very protective of you humans after all." Astaroth took out a pouch from his....somewhere....and waved it over the insidian. A space item, Ash concluded. A common enough item they sell around the Other Side, used for travelling. This one looked high-quality too, from the intricate runes sewn on the fabric. And when a space item is high-quality enough, it would usually be enough to store large amounts of objects.