Memories Of Another

Chapter 1

If she was completely honest, Velvet was at least a little bit curious as to why Seres, a Malak of all things, was suddenly helping he in the escape from this prison. But in the end, it didn't really matter to her. As she climbed up the ladder for the first time since she had been thrown into this hole, her mind was already picturing out how she would devour Artorius, slowly if at all possible. She shook her head, as she exited the hole. It was way too soon for her to think of how she would kill Artorius. She had just gotten the chance of a lifetime, possibly the only one she would ever get and she wasn't about to blow it by getting distracted.
T

he demon woman didn't even wait for Seres to get out of the hole before she made her way through the prison. Just like she had heard from interrogating prisoners before she ate them, there were a couple of cells placed on this floor. Apparently, this was where the prisoners were being kept before they were fed to her. The cells themselves were pretty dark, with only very few light entering them from the torches that hung in the hall. To her mild surprise, the therion saw that one of the cells was occupied.
A boy with blue hair, of all the possible colors, was sitting on the "bed", which was basically nothing more than a few pieces of wood being slapped together and hung on the wall with a couple of chains. Velvet couldn't completely make out the clothes he wore, but they appeared to be especially well made. If she had to guess, she would say the prisoner here once held a noble status or something.
While she was busy making her observation, Seres approached her from behind. The female Malak wondered what had gotten the therion's curiosity and looked into the cell.
"A prisoner? Here?" Seres asked aloud, surprise being present in her voice.
"This is where they keep prisoners they decided to bring down to me," Velvet informed the Malak. "Although this is the first time they wanted to give me a human to eat." Said human looked up, upon hearing the voices. One of his eyes was covered up by his hair. Through the visible one, the two females could see that his eye color was as unusual as his hair color: blue. His facial expression showed no emotion whatsoever. Velvet silently guessed he had either lost hope or made peace with himself. The other prisoners had to guess something was up when every now and then one of them was being dragged down, only to never to return.
"He's not necessarily a human," Seres disagreed. "After all, aren't you the perfect example of a demon, who mostly looks like a human?"
"I guess," Velvet conceded. His weird hair color definitely made him suspicious already in her mind. And if he really was a demon, then he probably could prove useful to her. With inhuman strength, she tore the prison door out of its frame, the noise causing both Seres and the boy to cringe in pain. As the noise echoed throughout the downer levels of the prison, Velvet carelessly threw the door away, which made, even more, noise, as it crashed on the ground. It took a couple of seconds for the noise to dissipate and during that time, Seres kept a watchful eye on their way out, fearing one of the guards might come down and investigate. As luck would have it, no one came down from the upper levels. If anyone heard it, they probably thought it was just Velvet rampaging in her cell. The Malak didn't even want to think about how it was being trapped in a dark, damp and cold cell for three years, without even getting a glimpse of the sun.
"So, what do you say?" Velvet asked the boy. "I let you help, you help me escape."
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Seres asked.
"I'll use any tool at my disposal to get my revenge," the demon simply replied, not turning her gaze from the boy. The boy had been gazing back at the woman, his expression unreadable. Eventually, he just shrugged with his shoulders and put his hands into the pockets of his trousers.
"I guess this means, he's in," Seres said aloud.
"Doesn't look like much, though. I guess he can serve as a meat shield," Velvet stated and walked ahead. Seres and the boy gave each other a look before the latter just shrugged and followed Velvet.
("He's coming with us just like this?") The Malak wondered to herself. ("I better keep an eye on him. He doesn't look like a political prisoner, like the other humans.")
The trio made their way through the hallway that led upwards. Puddles of water were everywhere on the floor, indicating this part of the structure was in serious need of some repairs.
"You will need equipment. There are weapons in the room ahead," Seres informed the other two. The boy nodded, while Velvet just kept walking ahead. The hallway leading upwards proved to be a particularly long one, occasionally taking a left turn. Torches were placed at regular intervals to light the whole way up. One could even see the quality of the walls improving, the higher they got. It seems that the owners of this prison tried to keep it in good condition, with only the downer levels being neglected for some reason or other.
Eventually, the trio arrived at one of a few staircases they would have to take. The path still went on, but at the end of the staircase in front of a wall hung a blue flag with a golden symbol on it. Velvet just passed it, but the boy regarded the symbol for a moment, before running after the black haired woman. Seres opted to stay behind the boy, where she could keep an eye on him.
Finally, they arrived at a door. Seres showed the other two the mechanism of how to open the door and it raised up. In the next room, the first thing that came into the trio's view, were the two dead bodies of the local guard. Judging from the looks of things, the two had died a quick death from getting stabbed in the back of the head.
"No one raised the alarm," Seres commented, not showing the relief in her voice.
"...I can see that" Velvet replied in an almost bored matter.
The blue-haired boy gave both of them a look, yet showed no emotion. He walked in front of the corpses and took a good look at them. The guards were covered from head to toe in what looked like very expensive and extravagant clothing. Their weapons were lying uselessly on the ground, just a couple of centimeters away from their hands. The boy put two fingers under the clothes and against the neck of one of the dead humans, just to be sure. He was still warm, if ever so slightly.
"Having second thoughts?" Velvet asked, ready to eat the boy if he proved to be difficult. He, however, didn't even regard her. Instead, he just walked away from the corpse and deeper into the room, where all kinds of things could be found. Velvet and Seres followed him.
"It looks like they kept prisoners' effects in here," Seres stated as she looked at an entire stack of nothing but personal diaries of prisoners. Velvet in the meantime had gone ahead and grabbed some rope. "Rope. This will be useful," she said and slung it over her shoulder. The blue-haired boy immediately walked in front of her, holding something brown in his hands. It was a backpack and he held it open. Understanding the indication, Velvet put the rope inside. The boy nodded and walked towards a wall, where a variety of weapons had been placed. Figuring that this was the top priority at the moment, Velvet followed him. One particular blade caught her attention, as it was sheathed in a beautiful black sheath.
"Quite a blade," she commented, picking it up. Seres walked over and almost gasped.
"I know that sword... Stormhowl!" she exclaimed, getting the attention of the other two. "What is it doing here?"
"Well, it's too big for me," the demon stated, not caring as to what kind of backstory this blade might possibly have.
"You're not taking it? It's a celebrated masterpiece," the Malak argued.
Now curious himself, the blue-haired boy took the blade into his hands and checked it out. He weighed it a little in his hands, before shaking his head and placing it back against the wall. He didn't know why, but something felt off about that thing.
"And if I can't use it, it's worthless," Velvet argued back. "It seems he understands it." The demon nodded towards the boy, who was busy regarding all of the weapons lined up there. He stopped when he came across a particular blade placed in the corner between the walls. He took said blade and unsheathed it. The weapon appeared to be a well crafted short sword. Upon further inspection, however, Seres could seem some small runes carefully crafted into the blade.
The boy appeared to be satisfied. He nodded to himself and sheathed the weapon, before looking at the rest of the room. The next ten minutes were spent scavenging for anything useful, which would then be put into the backpack. The boy found a belt for his weapon to put on, as well as some strange accessory items of which neither Velvet nor Seres had ever seen. The two figured those things belonged to the boy in the first place since they fit well with his out of the ordinary clothing.
As for Velvet, she found her old gauntlet blade. The gauntlet had seen better days, but it still worked and the blade would only need a little bit of sharpening. As for actual clothing, since the clothes she currently wore were pretty much destroyed, she put herself together a set of whatever she could find. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. The boy had the decency to turn around, as the demon changed out of her old village clothes and put on the weird mixture of armor and red and black clothes. Now she looked like she had just come off a battlefield.
Velvet tested out the mechanism of her gauntlet one more time, after which she sheathed her blade again.
"...All right," she said.
"Are you two ready then?" Seres asked, for which she received a nod from the boy, who had his hands back in his pockets.
All of the sudden, the trio heard a door open and someone ran in. "What's going on here?!" the guard shouted, as he entered the room, already unsheathing his blade and holding his shield up.
Velvet looked at him unimpressed and took on her battle stance. Seres did the same and the boy unsheathed his blade. Seeing as he was outnumbered three to one, the guard carefully retreated to the door, while keeping his eyes on his opponents.
"Be careful. He's no ordinary soldier," Seres warned her two companions. "He's an exorcist orderly."
Either Velvet didn't listen to the warning or she didn't care. She charged right against her enemy, who held his shield tighter. Instead of using her gauntlet blade, Velvet opted to surprise her enemy by using the hidden blades inside her boots. She unleashed a flurry of kicks, which were all blocked by the massive shield of her opponent. The exorcist tried to strike back by smashing his shield against the woman. However, he was halfway through the motion, when the man dropped the shield, due to a sudden pain in his shoulder. Looking to the side, the screaming exorcist found the blue-haired looking straight back at him with an uncaring expression. Before anyone could do anything, Seres had finished charging her fire-arte and shot it right against the man. He was sent flying backward and died screaming.
"You didn't even flinch," Velvet commented in slight surprise, relaxing her stands.
"...I already told you. I am his Malak no longer," Seres said back.
The boy looked at the corpse that was once the guard for a moment or two, before sheathing his sword. Velvet regarded him for a moment, before getting back to business.
"Is there a ship waiting?" she asked Seres.
"So you already know we're on an island."
The boy turned around, upon hearing the two women speak. From the looks of things, he didn't want to be left out of the conversation, even though he remained silent so far.
"Yes, I've learned that this is a prison island for violent criminals and that there are scores of daemons locked away here," the daemon lady confirmed. "Daemons say lots of things when they don't want you to eat them." Velvet balled a fist with her bandaged hand. The boy looked down upon noticing this and tilted his head as if he was thinking about something.
"The prison has docks at both the front and rear entrances. Our ship is on the back side;" Seres explained their escape method.
"Got it. The back docks." Velvet walked out of the room with her two companions following her. It turned out no one put much effort into designing this prison. It was to be expected from a prison for the walls to look bland, but another thing was, so far the path had led the trio just in a straight way. The boy thought that one could easily build a maze-like structure with these kinds of walls.
The trio stopped in front of a staircase, as they found a white glowing orb floating in front of it.
"What is this thing?" Velvet asked straight away.
"That's a special mass of mana," Seres explained. "Think of them as the souls belonging to a family of Malakhim." The boy with the blue hair raised a brow behind said hair. "They appeared all over after the Advent three years ago."
"Another after-effect of the Advent..." the daemon spoke thoughtfully. Now the boy didn't even bother to hide his curiosity, as he looked straight at the two women. However, his unspoken question was left unanswered. "If you collect enough of them, you might be able to solicit the cooperation of a Malak family," the Malakhim lady went on.
"And I'm supposed to take your word for it?" Velvet asked, aggression entering her voice.
"I'm not forcing you to do anything," Seres immediately answered with a tone that indicated, she didn't mean to offend Velvet. "Whether you collect them or not is up to you."
"I might as well pick them up. As I said, I'll use every tool at my disposal." The daemon went ahead took the orb in her hand, before placing it in her own pocket. Surprisingly, the orb appeared to shrink, as if to make sure it actually fit.
"Indeed," the female Malak whispered. "You'll have to if you want your revenge." It appeared as if Seres had been a bit too loud, as Velvet gave the redhead a glare before continuing. The boy followed straight after, trying to ignore the good view the staircases gave him on a certain body part of the woman in front of him.
Once they were on the upper floor, they found another one of those masses of mana and pocketed it in. As they made their way further into the prison, they suddenly stopped, as they heard someone else speak in the distance.
"Guardsmen," Seres whispered. "Two of them."
As silently as possible, the trio pressed themselves against the walls, behind a door frame. Not the best hiding place, but it worked.
"Did you hear?" One of the men spoke, as they passed by. "The path around the island is off-limits now. They say the ground's weak and could collapse."
"The path that goes under the watchtower?" the other guy asked. "That's all right, nobody used it anyways."
"True," the first one agreed. "But it was a nice shortcut to the docks..."
("Well that is convenient.") The blue-haired boy thought to himself. ("Almost too convenient.")
Just as the two guards were to go through a door, a third guardsman arrived on the scene. He had been running.
"A number of guards have gone missing. It would seem we have intruders on the island."
("Intruders? They don't think escaped prisoners might be responsible for this?")
"All exorcists, break into two groups and converge at the front and the rear gates."
"Understood. No one will get passed us."
"Stay sharp," the leader instructed. "The threat could be serious."
"Yes, sir!"
The two guards made their way towards their assigned station, while the leader ran back where he came from. Velvet, Seres and the blue-haired boy came out of their hiding spots, frowning.
"This isn't going to be easy," the Malak commented, looking in the direction the exorcists ran.
"Then we'll need reinforcements of our own. Since we busted out one prisoner already, we might as well help the rest. Where are the cells?"
"They should be on this floor," Seres informed the other two. The frown of the blue-haired boy deepened, as he could already guess what the daemon lady was planning. "You plan on involving the other prisoners?"
"I'll use any tool I have at my disposal," Velvet repeated once again, sending chills down the spine of her two companions. It was fairly obvious that she didn't give the faintest about what would happen to the prisoners, once the riot fully started. Unbeknownst to the two females, the boy balled a fist in his pocket but remained silent otherwise. He followed the two towards the cell blocks and unsurprisingly, they encountered guards.
"Who in the blazes are you?" the female one exclaimed, before charging at them, closely followed by her male colleague. Soon enough, the blue-haired boy found himself engaged in a one to one battle with the male guard. Unlike the white, blue and golden clothes of the exorcists, this guy wore actual armor and was equipped with a short sword and a shield. The blue-haired boy didn't even try attacking from the front. Instead, he used his superior agility and movement speed in order to dodge the attacks of the enemy guard. Said guard wasn't a fool, however. He only took short swings, whenever he thought the boy was in reach and didn't move too much in general. As the boy tried to get behind the guard, said guard just remained on the spot and only turned around during that time. Surprisingly he managed to keep up, meaning the blue-haired boy found himself with no choice but to attack from the front. Under normal circumstances, this would be pretty much suicide, given that the boy neither had a shield nor was he wearing any armor. Luckily for the boy, however, there were two things not normal about him. His mind and his sword.
An eldritch glow suddenly surrounded the blue boy's blade, surprising the guard in front of him.
"What the hell is this?!" he exclaimed in shock. The boy went on the offensive, running at his opponent. The guard raised his shield, seeing the obvious slash from above coming. He planned on blocking the strike and counter-attacking with his own blade. It never came to that. The hellish blade of the boy cut right through the shield, like a hot knife through butter.
"What the...? What in the-?!" Before the guard could find his composure, the boy swung his blade again, perfectly beheading the poor man. His body got dragged to the ground by the heavy armor, while the head rolled away in the corner of the room. A scream of pain indicated the demise of the exorcist, meaning that the trio had won the battle. Once again, the blue-haired boy was staring at the corpses with an uncaring expression.
Velvet and Seres in the meantime had their gazes fixed on the blade of the boy, which still emitted the same eldritch glow.
"Huh, I guess that explains why he is in here," Velvet mused and went to one of the doors. Through the spy hole, she observed the prisoners in their cells. Seres in the meantime had her eyes narrowed underneath her masked. She had a feeling something was off about the boy and now she got her confirmation. She didn't like the feeling she was getting from the blade of his one bit.
"Listen up!" Velvet's voice brought both boy and Malakhim back to reality. "I'm opening every door to every cell! We're getting off this island!" she shouted on top of her lungs. Murmurs began to spread among the prisoners. They got even louder as Velvet explained the plan. The prisoners were supposed to split up into two groups. Each group would storm one of the docks, where a ship was supposed to be waiting for them.
Everyone with two cells of brains could see what Velvet was really planning. The prisoners would distract the guards, while she used the closed off passage to get to the docks and head off with the ship Seres arrived him. She at least had the decency to tell them that she wouldn't force anyone to do this. Nevertheless, the boy with the blue hair frowned and looked to the ground, where he found the fresh corpses of the two guards slowly bleeding out.
The voices of the prisoners became louder and from what they were saying, they were ready to take their chances.
"Seres," Velvet spoke to the Malakhim who nodded. The red-haired woman used her magic and undid the seals on all of the cell doors. As soon as they were opened, like a flood, daemons, and humans alike ran past the trio and made their way to the docks.
"That ought to draw the attention of the guards. In the meantime, we'll search for that watchtower. From there we can follow the outer path down to the docks," Velvet explained her plan, which was 100% like what the blue-haired boy thought it would be.
"...So you're leaving them all to their fates," Seres concluded.
"I told you. I'll use any tool I need."
The boy sheathed his sword and put his hands back in his pockets. He was still looking to the ground but managed to follow the daemon nonetheless. Seres once again opted to go last, in order to keep an eye on the boy.
("I need to stay vigilante around this one.") Seres thought to herself. ("This isn't a normal prison. People are either here because they're daemons or have criticized the abbey. This boy definitely belongs to the former category. Yet... I am not sensing any malevolence around him. How strange...") Further musings of the redhead were interrupted by a... rhyme?
"Dear me, not a word of apology?"
The blue-haired boy didn't even resist the urge to roll his eyes. He knew as to whom this voice belonged to.
Velvet spun around, swinging her blade when she noticed a person standing behind her. The person, a blonde haired girl, wearing a magician or jester outfit in black and pink colors ducked just in time. With a harrumph, she got up and the blue-haired boy knew, they were in for another show.
"Hmph! What is WRONG with you people? There I was, sleeping like a sweet babe" the girl rhymed "when suddenly..." her voice became dramatic. "From paradise down to hell!" she exclaimed, making wild gestures. "No, worse! A grimy prison cell!" She giggled. "You see why I'm not feeling well."
"And you are?" Seres asked carefully. If she had looked, she would have seen the blue-haired boy's scowl disappearing and being replaced by a grin.
"Hooray, you asked! I'm thrilled to introduce to you the wise sorceress who travels the eleven seas, who scoffs at the might of dragons... None other than the acclaimed, the illustrious Mazhigigika Miluding do Din Noturun Dou! Magilou for short."
Yup, it was his old cellmate.