LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 15: Soul-stealing lanterns
The sun is high when Kyrie and Ian when out of the temple. It is already around lunchtime.
"Should we go for some lunch, Ian?" asks Kyrie.
"Sure! Let's do that."
After eating lunch, they went to the lake on the southwest side of the city. The lake was big, so when they arrived, the scenery looked closer to that of the ocean without the smell of salt. However, the air felt equally refreshing. The ports were decorated with beautiful lanterns. Near the ports, numerous merchants were constructing their tents and carrying their merch in boxes towards them.
Kyrie and Ian sit on a bench under the trees' shadow, looking at the sea peacefully. The sounds of the waves and the cry of birds tranquilize their hearts.
Kyrie turns his focus to Ian. He looks at Ian's hair gently, hovering from the breeze, slightly rustling. Kyrie looks at Ian's eyes slowly blinking, and he traces with his stare the margin of his profile - starting from the forehead to the curvature where his eyes are, down to the nose, and back to the lips.
Kyrie reaches with his right hand towards Ian's temple and runs his fingers through his raven black hair.
Ian turns and locks eyes with Kyrie. Ian's eyes are shaking. Unlike usual, Ian doesn't turn away his gaze this time, but Kyrie does because he feels all of a sudden a mix of indescribable emotions, like a knot in his throat or butterflies in his stomach. His heart is beating furiously on his eardrums. He disguises his nervousness with a smile.
Kyrie stands up and pats his trousers. He says, while trying to shake off the feeling, "Where should we go next?"
[I feel like I am going insane.]
Ian stands up and walks to his side and suggests, "Let's go to a book store!"
---
So, they walked around the streets of the capital city, trying out many things that are new to them. Despite the fact that both of them have never really liked being outside that much, they did not hold back trying out anything that got them curious.
When the sun was setting down and the skies appeared like a splash of vivid colours, Kyrie's senses became hypersensitive. He looks at the incarnations on the palm of his right hand and can feel the sword within trembling.
[It is starting...]
Kyrie gives a meaningful look to Ian. Because they have talked about the evil spirit and Vita's intentions during lunch, Ian recognizes Kyrie's stare that the demon puppets started to move.
However, Kyrie wanted Ian to return to the academy at first. The academy has a barrier strong enough to hold enough attacks from the evil spirit before he arrives there. Nonetheless, Ian ultimately rejected his proposal. The matters already sound so dangerous in words, so Ian could not just hide behind for his own safety.
Kyrie invokes a spell, and his pupils turn red. He looks at his surroundings to find strings attached to many lanterns and humans, leading to something up in the air. More and more strings started to become visible as the mana began to flow through them, and soon, many strings hang from the sky towards all directions.
He feels like they are inside a marionette show where everyone is just a puppet controlled by an invisible puppet master. The strings are as thin as fishing line, but they are transparent to the eye.
The people walking in the streets with their faces filled with anticipation to release their lantern did not know that their soul is in the process of being stolen away. On their backs, those strings acted like transfusion tubes, sending mana drained from these people and delivered it up to the sky. The strings traverse into people's bodies into their souls.
Kyrie circulated his mana towards his right hand, and the hilt of the sword came out of his palm. He takes it and pulls out the platinum blue sword that Vita gave him.
Kyrie looks at Ian, and Ian nods, understanding what he needs to do. Ian rapidly turns to walk away.
Kyrie yells, "Ian!" Ian turns around and looks at Kyrie, "Be safe..." Ian smiles, nods, and walks away, blending among the people.
Kyrie follows the strings that directed toward the same destination. When he got closer, he notices that he is going into the abandoned and quiet corner of the capital.
The houses there are old, and some are a complete shambles; many self-made tents where the homeless stay saturated the streets. This place is the polar opposite of what the main streets of the capital city would look like. However, having traveled for quite a while, he has not encountered any person yet.
Kyrie starts to sense numerous waves of mana and decides to head towards it. Hiding in the shadows, he peeps at a group of people in black capes.
The magic circle, which is rotating underneath them, gives off a red and purple light. In the sky, a mirrored magic circle floated like the one on the ground—all the strings connected to the magic circle in the air.
Kyrie understands why, throughout his way here, there is no presence of other people. He looks at the gruesome sight of corpses hung up. Every one of them is an empty shell, sucked dry through the strings that lifted them to the air.
A sudden gust of air blows towards Kyrie. Kyrie groans and jumps backward away from his hiding space. He puts pressure on his wound and looks at the figure covered in a black cape coming out of his hiding space.
[Damn it! I got careless...]
"It is not polite to peep, Sir Rowan," says the figure that stabbed him on the side of the abdomen.
[I know this voice... Don't tell me...]
"Archbishop Shelford..."
Shelford pulls down his hoodie and reveals his face. He carries a wicked smile as he licked the blood on his dagger. Demonic puppets in black hoods start to move towards Kyrie, surrounding him. Kyrie can feel his clothes soak in blood. He invokes a spell and freezes his wound, blocking more blood from coming out. Shelford chuckled at Kyrie's dismay.
However, Kyrie returns him with a confident smile. Shelford's smile immediately disappears from his face.
Kyrie poured his mana into his sword, and the sword shined of a blue aura.
Instantly, Shelford's face expresses panic.
Kyrie chants physical enhancement spells and runs towards Shelford. Like a ghost, Kyrie disappears in front of Shelford's eyes to appear already in front of him in an instant. The sword penetrated Shelford lighting him up on fire. Shelford screams out of pain as he got burned alive.
Kyrie intakes the feeling of his first kill. His eyes reflected the blue flames burning Shelford's already lifeless body. He turns around to face the other demonic puppets. The other figures in the black hood start to back away in fear. However, Kyrie mercilessly slays them one after the other, burning them to crisp.
After slaying the demonic puppets, he uses wind magic to fly towards the magic circle in the sky. In the center was floating a black cloud of mana. Kyrie can sense the chaos with it. He looks at the distance where the buzzing area is.
---
Ian listens to the stone communicator, "southwest, all done."
Ian talks to the Vicar, "Your holiness, the mana stones are all set up."
The Vicar smiles at Ian and walks towards the magic inscription on the floor. He enchants and tabs his staff on the magic circle; the magic circle starts to rotate and float above the ground. Then, the magic circle's inscriptions shone off a golden light.
After that, the magic circle ascends speedily towards the sky, blasting a gust towards the people who surrounded it. Once high enough, it condenses into a ball of light, separates, and shoots towards the direction of the mana stones.
When the light hit the mana stones, the mana channeled throughout the streets of the entire capital city. A boundary formed around the mana stones, and slowly mana wrapped the city in a dome.
People look at the dome in awe and angst. Everyone can feel that something is not right. However, when the Vicar appeared in the streets of the capital city, their worries calmed down. This shows the trust that people have for the church. They believe that Vita would look after them.
After the shield was completed, Kyrie, in mid-air, poured his mana once again into his sword. He chanted a spell that Vita gave to one of the saints for soul extermination in the ancient times. The sword's aura turned into a silver-blue.
He declared in a deep and echoing voice to the unconscious evil spirit, "In the name of Vita, I bring you to judgment!" His voice sounded different than his usual as if someone else spoke with his mouth.
The sword cried like the sound of thousands of bells at the same time. Then, a blue light sweeps across the sky. Everyone who is witnessing held their breath before the blue light passed their view. There is a calm before a thunderous blast caused the earth to shake for a few seconds. The dome cracked and shattered into light particles in the air.
---
Ian runs through the empty streets and arrives where Kyrie is. He could see Kyrie facing a blue fire with his head down, seemingly delivering a prayer. Hearing the sounds of footsteps, Kyrie turns around. He looks at Ian walking towards him while catching his breath. Kyrie smiles at Ian contently.
When both of them left, a woman appeared from the shadows. She carried a striking resemblance to Vita. She stared at the road that Kyrie and Ian took to leave and gave a meaningful look. A man with a black hood kneeled at her side and said, "The preparations on the forest of Labam are ready, master."
She extends her arm and with her long fingernail, she rips the space in front of her to make an opening. She looks at that road again, then walks into the opening that she created along with her servant. Then, the opening disappears without a trace.