Jonah's rusted sickles snaked back up his arms, blood dripping from the blades as they were jerked back into place. He held in his right hand a transparent soul stone. It was warm, seemingly radiating an energy that Jonah couldn't see.
'Finally, my prize is within my grasp,' he thought, a grin spreading across his face, 'Master will be very pleased indeed.' He pushed his arms back together, tucking the soul stone into his sleeves.
The only thing he didn't understand was why his master needed the rock from a random shop in the shopping center. He quickly dismissed the thoughts, having learned long ago to not question his master's methods. He strode out of the shop and into the corpse filled shopping center.
'The creature is probably off causing chaos in the city,' he thought, the image of hundreds of bodies littering the streets causing him to grin uncontrollably. However, a crimson light was emanating from the atrium.
Sensing that something was off, Jonah rushed forward to the railing and looked down into the greater atrium. The fountain and chandelier were destroyed, with the atrium also being visibly more damaged than it had been when he came out of hiding. However, the most striking thing about the scene was the mound of crimson flames burning what he could only assume to be his creature. His face contorted in rage and confusion, the usually calm looking Jonah taking on an otherworldly appearance.
"What the hell happened?" he asked himself, "I would've been notified if the high guard was inbound." He pondered, wondering who the hell present in the shopping center would have been strong enough and brave enough to take on his monster.
'I did a scope of the area beforehand and no one except the old man in that shop even had an attunement,' he thought, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. His only course of action was to go down and investigate himself. His watch suddenly crackled to life.
"Codename: Jonah, do you have the artifact?" it asked. Jonah ignored it however, climbing onto the railing and jumping down into the atrium. He landed softly, his cloak falling back into place. He swept toward the corpse of his monster, examining the crimson flames engulfing its body.
'The flames produce no heat,' he thought to himself. However, as he examined the parts of the body he could see, he noticed that the soul stones composing its outer armor were intact. It was as if the monster had been burned from the inside out.
"What kind of attunement?" he muttered to himself. Footsteps sounded from behind him, squelching through the bloodstained carpet. Jonah paused, slightly turning his head to his side to see who was approaching him. A teenage boy with an even younger boy holding his hand were walking out of one of the destroyed store fronts with the teenager attempting to comfort the kid. At a glance, the teenager was limping, clearly injured.
'Did he fight the monster?' Jonah asked himself. He caught sight of the teenager's face, recognizing him.
'That's the kid that bumped into me!' he immediately realized. However, there was something different about him. When Jonah had originally run into him, he hadn't been anything special, no attunement and barely any soul energy to speak of. Now, he had a bit more soul energy to him, residuals all over his body.
'What the hell happened to you?' he asked internally. The young boy caught sight of Jonah first, his eyes going wide. The teenager reacted swiftly, looking up to see Jonah and stepping in front of the younger boy. His eyes flashed crimson and he squinted them.
"You!" the teenager said, "You were the guy I ran into on the third floor."
"Guilty as charged," Jonah replied in a polite tone, nodding at the teen. The teen's eyes fell to the monster behind Jonah and back to the man himself.
"I'll cut to the chase," he said, his tone serious, "Are you the one behind all of this?"
"Ding, ding ding!!!" Jonah replied excitedly, spreading his arms wide and revealing the two sickles dangling from his sleeves.
"Two in a row, you're on fire!" The teen scoffed, pushing the young boy further behind him. Fresh blood dripped from the blades.
"Now let me ask you something," Jonah said, grabbing the chains and examining his sickles closely, "Were you the one who defeated this monster?" The teen narrowed his eyes skeptically.
"And so what if I was?" he asked. Immediately, Jonah felt his heart skip a beat. The last person he'd fought didn't pose much of a challenge.
"That would be excellent news," Jonah replied, "I've been looking for a change of pace." He raised one of his sickles to his mouth, licking the blood from the rusty blade. The teen made a face of disgust, the young boy burying his face into his protector's leg.
"You know, I didn't think you had an attunement?" Jonah commented, "You didn't strike me as special when we first ran into each other."
"That's cause I didn't have one," the teen replied, "I only just gained one." Jonah paused at this news, furrowing his brow.
'Just gained one, what kind of joke is that?' he asked himself. To cover his confusion, he broke out into laughter, wiping a tear from one of his eyes.
"That's funny kid, but you and I both know only prodigies get attunements and they get them way younger than you are," he said, shaking his head.
"I don't think I really care if you believe me or not," the teen replied coldly.
"You must be strong to be able to hide your presence so well," Jonah concluded, pointing a sickle at the teen, "But you're clearly injured." The teen looked down at his right side and left thigh.
"How will you defend the boy and fight me at the same time?" Jonah crouched into an offensive stance, infusing his legs with soul energy and launching himself at the pair, a manic grin spreading on his face.
Iago couldn't believe that the man he'd just happened to bump into earlier could have caused all of this death. Yet all of his senses and his attunement were telling him that the maniac rushing towards him and the little boy was the same person as that man.
He tried to draw on his soul energy, attempting to draw forth the crimson flames he had used to vanquish the creature. However, nothing happened. It felt like he was trying to drink from an empty cup with a straw.
'I'm out of soul energy?' he asked himself. The maniac got closer and closer, a wide grin spread across his face. He spun his sickles around, the blades outlined in green, spectral soul energy as runes along the blades lit up.
'How can I protect the kid and fight him at the same time?' he asked himself. He searched through his brain for an answer, but found nothing. His senses felt numb, his eyes burning. The three wounds he'd sustained in the fight earlier throbbed in protest at his every movement. His brain felt like it was overstimulated, a numbing sensation taking over his thought processes.
The man rushed at Iago, sickle raised high, preparing to land a decisive blow. Iago closed his eyes, gritting his teeth, ready to take the blow. However, pain never came.
He slowly opened his eyes, only to have them shooting open in surprise. The man was frozen, his body shaking slightly. His arms, legs and torso had glowing, slate-blue chains embedded within them, halting his motion. His eyes darted around in their sockets, confusion and fear present in their frantic movements.
Iago's eyes followed the chains, noting that they had seemed to sprout from the ground. However, more chains then shot from behind him, snaking around the man in graceful slithering motions. The man was pulled away, slung into the air and slammed into the wall of the atrium with an echoing boom, blasting dust and debris into the air. Iago stared at the place where the man had been slammed, dumbfounded.
"Careful," a playful voice said from beside him. Iago's head snapped to the side, only to see a girl with blue hair beside him, chewing gum casually amidst all of the destruction and bloodshed.
"Wha…?" he asked aloud.
"Next time, try moving out of the way instead of standing there," she advised, looking Iago up and down, her eyes lingering on his injuries.
"Sound advice," Iago replied, trying to stand up straight. Pain shot through his body, his injuries giving off a dull throb.
"Hey now, you're in no shape to go anywhere," the girl said, placing a hand on his shoulder in concern. A loud boom echoed across the atrium. The girl immediately moved in front of Iago, her eyes narrowing.
The wall of the atrium exploded, sickles and chains tearing apart what was left of the drywall, sending dust and debris into the air. Then came the man. He burst from the wall, lunging straight for the girl, a crazed expression in his eyes.
"Watch out!" Iago called to her, clutching his side. The girl raised her arms, spectral chains blasting from her finger tips, rushing toward the man like a pack of angry snakes. The man grinned, dodging between the chains and spinning his sickles, deflecting any others that got close.
"He's getting closer," Iago said, panic dripping from his voice. The girl was unfazed however. Iago looked between her and their approaching assailant, confused at her lack of response. His eyes opened wide as he realized however. The chains that missed the man were bouncing off the ground, snaking back towards the man at their original speed.
The girl then began to throw her arms around, pulling the chains and adjusting their arcs until a storm of chains surrounded the man.
"Did you think it would be that easy???" the man yelled, swinging his sickles around, cutting down several of the chains.
'What kind of attunement is this?' Iago asked himself, watching in awe. With the constant bouncing movement of the chains combined with the changes in trajectory the girl was applying with her arm movements, Iago could barely keep up with the chains. The same clearly applied to the man too, however, as chains were beginning to snake through his defense, embedding themselves into his arms, shoulders, back, legs, and hands.
"What is this sorcery?" he yelled, panic encroaching on his tone.
"Your judgement," the girl replied coldly, then pulling her arms back. The chains immediately became taught, retracting back into her finger tips and binding the man tightly. His sickles began to lose color, their energy fading gradually.
'Is she pulling the soul energy out of him?' he asked himself in shock. The green soul energy from the man was snaking up the chains, slowly fading into slate blue and passing into the girl, whose eyes were now glowing.
The man sunk to his knees, his energy now siphoned.
"Who… are you?" Iago asked.
"Just a girl who's trying to make the world a better place," she said, turning back to Iago and giving a teasing wink while sticking her tongue out.
'So… that's what an actual paladin looks like,' Iago thought, letting out a sigh with a small smile.