Chapter 23.6: The Hesitating Blade

  Dante locked up the motorcycle he used to get to the Mandai Crematorium. He had to walk the rest of the way up the hill so as not to attract attention.

  Soon, he stood in front of the entrance to the crematorium. Inside stood several blocks, each softly illuminated by the street lights. The architecture was simple; their purpose, the same.

  Though nondescript, each block felt different, swelling with the memories of families of the living and the dead. The warm night breeze blew, carrying the soft fragrance of flowers along with it. Even with the breeze, the air remained thick and hot, much like the heavy feelings that suffocated this place.

  The place was teeming with Cursed Essence. It swirled around the place like a dark veil. He slipped the ring off his finger. “Ocular form,” he whispered as he brought his ring to his face.

  The ring transformed into a monocle with a black frame and a red-tinted lens, which crawled up his cheek and nestled against his eye. It immediately pinpointed the source of Cursed Essence, which seemed to be coming from one of the inner blocks; the Jasmine block, to be exact.

  In two swift motions, Dante hoisted himself up the gate and landed on the opposite side. He snuck in, avoiding areas with camera surveillance. The guards’ routines were at the back of his hand, and sneaking in without being caught by them was easy enough. Breaking in was not ideal, but it was for the best. Dante did not have to explain himself to the police and risk getting jailed for trespassing. As he neared the block, he peeked around the corner. He had to make sure that there was no one around. The Cursed Essence had grown even more intense. The source of it all had to be inside.

  “Don’t go… Have a safe… journey... Roasted… Pork…”

  Dante flicked his left hand – the command for Scarlet to transform into a whip. Red sparks crackled from its body. It was more for insurance, just in case he needed another weapon to cut into the phantom. Taking a deep breath, he readied himself, unsheathing his sword.

  Suddenly, he felt someone tap on his shoulder.

  Dante whipped around, forcefully striking the pommel of his sword against the chest of the unsuspecting stranger who crept up behind him. It was enough to make them go down on the concrete floor like a cut tree.

  “Bind.” Scarlet snaked around the stranger’s body and tightened itself. With his foot, Dante rolled the culprit onto their back.

  “Owowowow… Did you really have to hit me that hard?” the stranger moaned.

  That voice and that auburn hair.

  Dante regarded the man before him. He had grown out his hair considerably and did it up in a bun, but he had not changed much. The heart that had always beat steadily was now pounding wildly.

  “You,” Dante stated flatly, retracting the whip. Keeping his voice steady took tremendous effort.

  Felix smiled gleefully. “Long time no see, Dante. I see you ditched the glasses and the teensy-tiny braid!”

  “Get out of my way.”

  “Hey, hey! I’m here for a mission too!” Felix was dressed casually in a flowery button-down shirt and jeans. He massaged the sore spot where he got struck. Dante noticed the bandages wrapped around his neck peeking out from under the collar of his shirt.

  “Liar,” Dante spat.

  “Hey, listen to what I have to say... Today’s case involves someone who goes around Mandai snorting ashes.”

  “Could you be more serious?”

  “What a stick in the mud. Sometimes I can’t even tell what’s going on in that brain of yours, more so that frozen face and monotonous voice,” Felix huffed. “There has been some disturbance lately.”

  “And?”

  Felix scoffed, “Obviously the work of a Cursed Phantom, made up of the collective sorrow and despair of this place. It could also be the sentiments and regrets of many Resentful Spirits. They fester until they become a threat that warrants action. In this case, it killed a person a few days ago. Open and shut case.”

  “Tell me something I do not know.”

  “There have also been reports of broken memorials and missing urns, as well as ash bunnies.”

  “They had to get a Supreme grade sorcerer to deal with what he calls ash bunnies.”

  Felix chuckled. “You do have a sense of humour after all.”

  “I. Do. Not.”

  “But since you are here,” Felix grinned. “This case has become something that’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Dante had a lingering suspicion that their fateful meeting was not a coincidence, but he quickly shifted his focus to the more pressing matter at hand. The two sorcerers stepped into the dark cloud. Immediately, the memorial tablets in the aisles shattered, and a thick cloud of human ashes and bone fragments swirled around them. Felix wrinkled his nose. “Smells like ass.”

  With one short, decisive swing of his short sword, Dante cleared a path. “Still carrying that dull cleaver?” Felix quipped.

  “Shut your mouth,” Dante shot back. A ball of fury formed inside him, but he swallowed it down. The window for them to exorcise the phantom shortened dramatically as it was a matter of time before the guards picked up on the commotion.

  He retracted his whip and slipped off his ring to put it in Ocular form once again. The moment it located the Cursed Core, he launched his sword into the air.

  Dante watched the blade spin. The blur of silver arced through the air in a perfect parabolic trajectory, far from his grasp.

  At the apex of its trajectory, it stilled for a beat.

  Then the sword was in his grasp once more.

  With his peripheral vision, Dante could spot his afterimage at the spot where he had stood split seconds ago. If not for his Essence-reinforced body, he would have gone deaf from the warping.

  Dante dropped from the skies and slashed the Cursed Core into two clean halves. Scarlet lashed out around him, devouring any stragglers who dared escape.

  As the ash cloud settled around them, Dante put his hands together and paid his respects. “May you have a restful Afterlife.”

  Felix let out a low whistle. Dante ignored him and turned to leave. “Aren’t you going to say something to an old friend?” Felix asked.

  “No.”

  “Where are you headed? If you are headed for the schools, I’ve already cleared them of phantoms.”

  Dante froze. Phantoms that plagued schools were nowhere as dangerous as the one they encountered. He had hunted them through every campus on the island, and tedium had become the true enemy. Why did Felix go out of his way to deal with weaker phantoms?

  Before Dante arrived at the answer, a guard came hurrying towards the block. Upon seeing the two men, he radioed for backup.

  “Time to make a quick getaway!” Felix declared.

  “Enigma!” Dante set up his technique, and a shimmering veil covered them so the guard would not see them. As they were about to make a run for it, Felix grabbed him around his waist and jetted both of them away, much to his dismay.

  ***

  “Damn, that was close!” Felix grunted as he set Dante down on his feet when they were out of sight. He had instructed him to land where his motorcycle was parked.

  “Devour,” Dante said simply.

  The ring glowed red and consumed his technique. Felix gasped. “Is this how you avoided the Beacon’s detection? D-”

  The edges of Dante’s vision started to tremble. His lips curled into a grimace that his face rarely wore. A sharp hiss escaped through clenched teeth as his grip on the sword turned white-knuckled. Felix’s smile faded slightly, but Dante decided that it was not enough. He wanted to chew it up and spit it out. “What happened back there was merely professional courtesy,” he snarled.

  That irritating smile vanished. Felix’s lips started to move, but the heat emanating from Dante’s chest rose past his neck. “I told you to never look me up again!” he spat bitterly as he pointed his sword at Felix’s chest. “Never!”

  “But–”

  For a moment, Dante saw red.

  “NEVER!!!” That shout came from the pits of his soul and ripped through his throat. It was so painful that he hunched forward slightly. His blade trembled, forcing him to steady his hand.

  “Dante-” Before Felix could finish whatever he wanted to say, he let out a hacking cough. He gripped his chest and groaned, putting a hand on his knee. There was blood on the floor at his feet. Felix wiped his mouth hurriedly with his sleeve.

  Dante lowered his blade but raised it again quickly. This is just an act to earn sympathy points, he thought.

  Felix’s lips wobbled, turning pale quickly. The pinpricks of sweat forming on his forehead caught the streetlights. “I can’t–”

  “You’re acting–”

  Without warning, Felix’s legs gave out, and he crashed onto his knees with a thud.

  “Whatever you did, you deserved it.” Dante shook his head vehemently, retreating away from Felix. He walked toward his motorcycle, only to be yanked backwards mid-step.

  Scarlet had wrapped itself around Felix’s arm and was pulling them together. “Let go,” Dante commanded.

  It did not budge. “I am your master. Let go.” Dante tugged on it.

  Again, Scarlet did not listen. Dante clawed at it, desperate to rip it off, when a bolt of electricity tore through him, searing every nerve and wrenching a strangled cry from his throat. He, too, dropped to his knees. The whip shortened without warning, jerking him forward towards Felix.

  “Stupid! Get away!” Dante shoved Felix so that he was an arm's length away. Felix screamed as the electricity coursed through him this time. Soft wheezes bubbled between the redhead’s lips, and he moaned loudly while gripping his chest with his free hand.

  “I GIVE UP! YOU STUPID RING!” Dante bellowed.

  Scarlet stopped with the electric stunt but still kept the two of them tethered to each other. With his gloved hand, Dante shoved two fingers into Felix’s mouth, drawing out a gasp.

  “W-Why’d you do that?” Felix sputtered after Dante extracted his fingers.

  “To make sure that you aren’t biting down on a blood bag or capsule.”

  “Fuck,” Felix groaned. “You…”

  The blood was real. Dante’s heart pounded so wildly that he felt as though he was about to implode. Felix finally noticed Scarlet around his wrist. “Obscure Scarlet–” Felix started, but was immediately cut off.

  “Stop talking!” Dante snapped. “One word out of you on the way back, and I will leave you on the roadside for the garbage truck to pick you up.”

  “Thanks…” Felix smiled weakly. It made something in Dante twist so hard that he had to put Felix to sleep.

  Yet, it did not erase that small smile.

  Dante seized Felix's wrist, nearly twisting it off his arm. Scarlet did not oppose this. So, he dragged Felix to his motorcycle.

  Somehow, they made it back alive.