Vierne Obolensky is the last heir of the Obolensky family, the family of Earls in Moscow, Russia. With a demigod's destructive powers in both her hands, she killed everyone who touched her, leaving her alone in an abandoned mansion away from human c...
Akagi and Melissa didn't seem disturbed by the commotion. They were busy enjoying their meal. "Lict and Vierne are fighting. So romantic." Melissa said. "Watch him break a bone as a sacrifice," Akagi said. Suddenly, his pocket began shining and he took out the amulet from within it. "An amulet?" Melissa stared at it.
"It's too early." Akagi got up and ran upstairs. Vierne was talking about how she was sad about not being able to interact with mortals. However, Lict wasn't listening. He was feeling sick, he could feel his heartbeats inside his head and his body turned cold. He was wheezing, gasping for breath. His flesh dried and turned black. Vierne felt an ominous presence behind her. She turned back and Lict ran towards her. Akagi entered the room and threw the amulet in the air. It made a white, cylindrical wall surrounding him. He punched the wall and shouted.
Vierne was terrified.
'Tch! It's not even the lunar eclipse yet! Why did this happen?' He thought. "Lict! Wake up! This is not you!" Akagi shouted. "Shut up!" He punched harder and a huge crack appeared on the wall. Akagi ran towards the wall and touched it, transferring his spirit energy on it to make it stronger. Melissa peeped through the door.
"Vierne, use your Spirit energy to strengthen the wall!" Akagi shouted. "How?" Vierne asked. "Touch the wall! Spirit energy can only be transferred physically!" Lict punched harder and the wall moved back, "Do it, Vierne!"
She panicked and quickly touched the wall. "Don't panic, Vierne! Focus!" "It's not working!" She shouted. "It has to! Just use your core! Believe in yourself, Vierne. This is your star spirit. All you need to think about is saving him!"
"I—" "Do you want to lose him?!" Vierne looked at him. He was not Lict anymore. He was a demon. The demons that Akagi talked about, he was one of them? She made a contract with a demon unknowingly—But wasn't he supposed to be a star? He was an elite, wasn't he? Or was it a lie?
"Melissa, throw the second amulet! Call Aleksei!" Akagi shouted and Melissa ran towards Akagi's room. Vierne looked into Lict's eyes. Stars could lie too. Stars could break your heart too. She smirked, "Heart? I don't have a heart!" She shouted as she passed her spirit energy onto the wall. "You are a star spirit, you think you can concern me about my position?! I will put you back to your place." The wall glowed brighter and Akagi closed his eyes,
'That's a lot of spirit energy' He thought. Melissa found the amulet and threw it in the sky. It glowed and went towards the clouds. Akagi couldn't see properly in the bright light. The entire room was piercing his eyes. But Vierne didn't plan to stop. Not until she heard Lict, "Milady, you like everyone but me and it hurts."
She stopped the energy transfer and the wall broke down. Lict fell on the ground unconscious. His skin was back to normal. Aleksei was there by then.
"Is it over already?" He asked. "I hope," Akagi looked at Lict. Aleksei opened a bottle and sprinkled some ritual water on Lict. "Put him to bed." Maks paced ahead but Aleksei stopped him, "Not you, a demigod."
Akagi picked him up and laid him on his bed. Vierne looked at Aleksei, who like always, was dressed up in a changshan. He entered Lict's room and closed his eyes. Maks was asked to stay out of Lict's room since cursed star spirits could infect other star spirits and pass on the curse to them. Demigods were purification vessels so they wouldn't be as much affected and healed relatively fast. Aleksei examined Lict's soul while Akagi stood behind him. In about nearly five minutes, he got up.
"What did you sense?" "A demon," "Told you so," "This is more grave than I thought." "Yeah, the curse is degenerative."
"No, what you saw today was not a consequence of the curse. " "What?" Akagi didn't see this coming. "Looks like someone sealed that in. I felt a holy seal constricting his powers." "What was that I just saw? His skin turned black and I saw black patches and on his back." "Yeah, that's a demon."
"He is possessed." "That is what I'm not sure about. The demonic aura inside him is so strong that I'm afraid he just isn't possessed. He might be one of them--A demon." "Can't you perform an exorcism? I heard your grandfather was a priest." "He was and I can perform an exorcism. But Lict's case is a different one. What do you think we do in an exorcism? It's mostly prayers to the gods--Lict is cursed by the gods so tell me why would they help him?"
"Please don't tell me you can't help him." Akagi looked into Aleksei's eyes. "All we can do is stay prepared so that it won't be a surprise." He turned and looked at Lict. "What are you thinking?" Aleksei asked. "I need some hot water."
Vierne stood outside the door, listening to their talk. "You're eavesdropping again?" Melissa whispered. Vierne was about to shout when Melissa grabbed her mouth and dragged her away from the room. "Why are you always eavesdropping?" She asked.
"It's a good habit. It tells you about things others don't want you to know." "If we don't tell you anything, it's for your own good." "Tell me, what is this curse? And I hope what you say next are not lies." "Let's take a walk." Melissa smiled.
Melissa and Vierne walked through the rose garden. Vierne was waiting but Melissa wasn't saying anything. She just touched the rose petals while sitting beside the dried-up fountain. "You know, Lict had a master before you." "Yeah, I pretty much figured that out."
"In the third century BCE, the Han dynasty was ruling over China. It was the second imperial dynasty of the country, ruling for 400 years. Till date, it is considered to be a golden age in Chinese history. That's the era when the name of fangxiangshi rose among the people.
They were only tales and myths in the human world like demigods and star spirits—But they were real like us. They were exorcists by birth, wore bearskin over their head, had long black hair and wore a four-eyed mask. It was believed that the four golden eyes on the bearskin symbolized the ability of a fangxiangshi to see simultaneously in all four directions. Their eyes were golden and they were clad in a black upper garment and a red lower garment. At that time there were no doctors or anything like medical science, the fangxiangshi were the ones who chased out disease-causing demons from houses. They were such strong exorcists that their mere presence could kill weaker demons. The water they touched was purified and used as medicine.
At the annual Great Exorcism, called the Nuo exorcism, the fangxiangshi used war magic to chase out demons, presented offerings or shot arrows at the evil spirits in the four directions. Then the Nanwu accompanied them outside, away from human habitations. In those times, the disease was something demonic, it still is but now people don't believe as much in demons as they used to. And the lesser a human believes in magic, the lower are the chances that it will happen to them."
"Why are you telling all this to me?" Vierne asked, "Because that's what Lict's old master was—A fangxiangshi."
-To be continued
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