Beyond?

***Elsewhere***

***Me***

PAIN!

This agony! Why does it hurt so much? I open my eye. My eye? Why do I have just one eye? Fuck! It feels like something is crushing my body and rebuilding it from scratch! From far away I hear a scream. But then I realize that it's my own. It doesn't sound like a voice that belongs to a living being.

Finally the pain subsides and leaves me lying on a hard stone floor while I'm gasping for air. It looks like I am in a dark room. The oil lamps on the walls provide just enough light for me to take a look at my surroundings.

There is something like a magical circle on the ground around me. I am in the centre of a hexagon about ten metres in size. On each edge of the summoning circle lies a person with their throats cut. What a waste! Which butcher orchestrated this ritual?

I turn my attention towards myself. Two chubby arms and legs. Two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two ears! At least I am symmetrical. Though the weapon between my chubby legs seems a little small.

There is blood all over me, but my skin is unhurt and soft. I seem to be a child? Yeah, I think I remember now that small children are supposed to look like this. Why the fuck am I a child?

A small whimpering voice draws my attention and I turn around.

I am greeted by a guy in a black cloak. His eyes are completely black and a single black feathered wing sprouts from his right shoulder. Great, another freak!

He has a bloody dagger in his right hand and a gleaming amulet in his left. The lines and circles of the amulet are forming the same magical circle as the one I am sitting in. I'll call that guy Mr. Black for now.

Behind him is a dirty altar with a crying woman on top. She is wailing and tries to get away, but invisible shackles hold her in place. There are cuts all over her body and her belly is a bloody mess. Did Mr. Black gut her? What strikes me as odd, though, is the swirling tail that's attached to her and the black horns which crown her head. The strange dark metallic hair colour is just a small bonus compared to her other features. I am sorry Mrs. Sacrifice. I don't think you are going to survive.

Mr. Black steps forward while he looks baffled at me. Probably he expected something big and red, with claws? Ah, I think I killed the one Mr. Black wanted to call.

He shakes his amulet at me. “What's this!? This failure! So many sacrifices! For a small child!?”

His face turns red while he's screaming at me, but I don't understand his language. That's a problem. Or not? I am not sure if I want to understand him.

My eyes wander to another pile of bodies while Mr. Black continues screaming. Seems like that's the reason why his summoning ritual felt so full of life. He killed a lot of people for this.

Well, I don't care. There are real people around me for once. I don't remember how long it has been since I had company. It doesn't matter if they are alive or dead. People are people.

“Make yourself at least useful and clean all this!” Mr. Black speaks with a commanding voice and his amulet pulses red.

I feel something tugging at my mind. Enslavement magic? I don't even understand what he wants. Is that guy an idiot? Now I feel lucky that I don't understand his language. No commands, no enslavement. I grin at him in the most stupid manner I am capable of.

He stomps onto the ground. “Graaah! It's stupid too! So that means that just simple commands work. UP!” He lifts his arms together with the command.

Unfortunately the gesture alone isn't hard to understand and I start moving before I can do anything against it. Crap!

Just at this moment the heavy wooden door which leads into this room bursts open and several people storm inside. All of them carry weapons and have the same weird bodies as Mrs. Sacrifice. Though I notice that the men don't have tails.

Mr. Black waves his hand and the first group of attackers is thrown backwards by a pulse of telekinetic power.

“Kill!” Mr. Black points at the newcomers and looks at me while the amulet glows up.

I waver for a second on what to do. It's obvious that he wants me to do something to them. Long forgotten feelings of hate well up inside me as I look at the newcomers. Probably the amulet is the reason for these feelings.

For one moment I waver. But then I raise my hand and infuse my mana into the blood all around the room. Another wave of my hand forces the blood under my will and a fine red mist forms between us and the newcomers. Then it solidifies into a transparent, shimmering red barrier.

Somehow I don't like to be ordered around by Mr. Black. So I intentionally misunderstood him.

On the other hand my hesitance allowed three attackers to pass the barrier before it was fully formed. There is an old woman with a staff and a younger woman which looks similar to Mrs. Sacrifice.

A man with a spear also managed to pass my barrier in time. “Valda!” He screams in rage as he finds Mrs. Sacrifice on the altar.

The locked out people are hammering in vain onto my blood seal. Though each of their blows creates small openings on the transparent film of blood. The holes close immediately after they are created. Strange. I seem to be very weak. They shouldn't be able to do anything to my barrier.

The three people who managed to pass the barrier attack without hesitation and Mr. Black forces them backwards with another surge of power.

Mr. Black raises his amulet another time. “K... Aargh!”

The spear guy threw his spear at Mr. Black and hit his hand dead centre. The amulet flies through the room and lands close to the Altar.

I try to move in order to destroy the accursed object, but I am bound to my position. The previous order is still in effect and retrieving the amulet for myself has nothing to do with keeping the attackers at bay.

Spear guy charges at us together with the younger woman, but a swing of Mr. Black's wing wipes him away like an annoying fly.

“Yoran!” The woman calls for the spear wielder. Then Mr. Black plucks the younger woman out of the air like catching a toy. A surge of life force ripples back and forth between them. But the woman is overwhelmed with ease.

The girl screams while being held at her throat and Mr. Black is sucking something like a green mist out of her with his wing as a conductor. I shudder. Mr. Black seems to be a soul mage and I can't oppose him while I am under the influence of that damn amulet!

I survey the room and find the old woman standing again. “Vile fiend! Begone!” She raises her staff and a ray of light shoots at Mr. Black. He deflects it with ease and sends the granny to the ground with another pulse of power. I suppose he didn't use all of the sacrifices for my summoning ceremony. He used at least a few of them to strengthen himself.

Mr. Black drops the girl to the ground and sneers at the dead body.

Then something tugs at my mind and I snap to attention. Turning towards the altar, I find Mrs. Sacrifice on the ground. She is holding the amulet which was sent flying earlier with both hands. Her expression is desperate while she looks at me. “Save us. Save us. Please!”

I don't understand what she wants, but I can guess it.

Mr. Black's attention turns towards Mrs. Sacrifice. “No!” He steps forward, but I tug with telekinesis at his foot and trip him.

The blood on the ground is still infused with my mana and a mere thought is enough to form a long spike where Mr. Black lands on the ground. It penetrates his chest and exits at his back. He looks at me with shocked eyes as I toddle towards him and touch his cheek, making contact with his mind.

A scream erupts from him as I start draining his life force. Finally his control slips and all the souls which were contained within him escape. Dozens of lights exit him and I grab one of them. It has the right feeling to it. And it is in tune with the dead body of the young woman.

The soul is in turmoil, so I open myself and force my own calm feelings onto it. I try very hard to hold back in order to not overwhelm her. It's a young soul after all.

It's been a long time since I did this, but I think I got the right one. I walk on my chubby feet to the young woman's corpse and sit down beside her. The soul enters her body with ease and I electrocute the woman. She gasps and opens her eyes.

Good, it hasn't been too long since her soul was taken. As long as it's returned within a certain time frame, there should be no problems.

I pat her forehead to reassure her, leaving a bloody hand print there. Ah, I forgot that I am still dirty. She is just looking at me, flabbergasted.

That's done. One more to go. The force of the amulet doesn't let go of me and I head back to Mrs. Sacrifice as the young woman gets to her knees.

The spear man is holding her with tears in his eyes. She is whispering some words to him. Probably her final ones. I grab her hand and start pouring the life force I robbed from Mr. Black into her.

It feels nauseating to do so, but I continue anyway. The wound in her belly closes and the cuts disappear. Finally some colour returns to her face. Ah, I feel dizzy. This way of healing is bothersome, but it's the most effective one I know.

Both Mrs. Sacrifice and the spear man look at me in wonder.

“No!” Suddenly Mrs. Sacrifice shoots forward and grabs me, shielding me with her body against something.

“Get out of my way! We have to deal with this monster!” The voice of the old woman speaks, but I am too tired to listen. She sounds angry and dangerous. I have a hard time staying awake since I just cheated the grim reaper of two lives.

“My child is no monster!” The woman is crying above me.

I reach up and wipe the tears away, not understanding what's wrong. Didn't I just save her? There is no need to spill water. Such a waste of resources. I close my eyes to sleep...

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