With Daiko’s spell settling, the barbarians felt like having lost more than they could have ever expected against the three Blue Pegasus Mages. Well, sucks to be bastards around these mountains - nobody wanted marauders to assault and steal goods on a daily basis, so when Sofia pointed the sharp edge of her mana sword towards them like a captain, Daiko was glad to see that they were too shaken to ever meet her match. That was when she stated the obvious; the odds were against the hooligans now, so why not give up and surrender to the mages? At first, Daiko didn’t think that they would go along with that - their constant notions of masculinity was closely tied with pride, and who would throw their pride away? Especially as the first?
 
Alisa appeared to have concluded the fight when she joined up with them again, and that was when he heard the clanging of fallen weapons from the rest of the barbarians. They were all looking at their… their… sculpturized piece of art of a leader-
 
“Holy moly…” was all he could say to the scene, watching as Coda nonchalantly perched on the crystal sealing of Bhuttan. Even when Alisa praised them both, Daiko soon remembered that Alisa had performed a demonic spell a moment ago, and he would likely only benefit from asking right now. Still resting on his butt, he looked up to his Guildmistress’ face - despite it being difficult to eye her from this angle due to certain factors in the way.
 
“A-Alisa… what was that magic? That spell, I mean, I could’ve sworn I heard you scream ‘demon’, but…”
 
Some of the barbarians heard his words and shivered in fear, beginning to mumble stuff about the Crystal Mage and the word ‘demon’… it soon turned to accusations of her having made a deal with the Devil for this level of power, to which Daiko’s face gained paranoia. He didn’t mean to say it out loud, but now look what he had caused… shit…
 
A vein pressed itself up against the inner side of his skin, and his teeth grinded violently against each other as he rose up. He wasn’t having any of this. “Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT! UP! THE NEXT, LITTLE SHIT WHO SPEAKS ILL OF HER, I’LL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT!”
 
His voice almost cracked mid-sentence, but he got his desired result… for now, at least.
 
“*huff*… *huff*…”


WC: 409
TWC: 4169

Not gonna lie, seeing Alisa smile upon hearing his question caused him to shiver for a bit. Just what… just what was it? This magic that she showcased right now… it didn’t make sense in his humble bird brain. Surely, only demons could cast demon spells, right? Was Alisa a demon?! No, no way, she had never shown such traits - while her alluring nature could be called devilish, Daiko would never think of her as some otherworldly creature in that sense. Besides, during the Demon Break, she had shown signs of utter resentment towards demons, which was the catalyst for his confusion at the very moment - c’mon, bird brain, mix some reasonable explanation up-
 
Oh, thankfully, Alisa came to explain it. The spell came from a Lost Magic, a classification of magic that originated from ancient times and were thought completely lost in all manners of memory and documentation. That much, he knew; her magic, her Crystal Demon Slayer Magic, was under that category… woah, hold up. Hold up for a second-
 
When had she learned that magic? That made him panic even more! Who had been teaching her Demon Slayer Magic?! … Had a Demon actually been teaching her that? Was it one of the Demons that they waged war against back then? And if so, how the hell did she convince such a being to teach her? Yes, she was already an extremely powerful sorceress, but meddling with demons felt like just inviting trouble in the eyes of the Fire Mage. Man, to even just go up and face them to begin with- Alisa sure had balls of steel, that was for sure! Daiko knew that he wouldn’t last that long in the presence of evil demons-
 
Evil… oh yeah! Maybe she met a Demon who wasn’t evil! Yeah, like humans, demons could be good too - that could exclude any demons from the onslaught that happened about a year ago, but it still begged the question; who taught her, then? Did Sofia know? This was new and actually pretty big to him! Or, or, maybe she had been using this Demon Slayer Magic all along? But clearly, she would’ve expressed so in a way that Daiko would realize it himself… like screaming the word ‘demon’ in her casting of her spell, for instance. That never happened before, so clearly, she must’ve learned this very recently…
 
His head began to hurt with all of this unneeded speculation. Nonetheless, Demon Slayer Magic sounded absolutely amazing - at first, it sounded a bit like Takeover Magic where a person embodied another entity in combat, but she had still utilized pure crystal spells without transforming herself. Hmh…
 
He then saw her clench her fist, releasing just a tease of Demon Slaying Aura from it - to his shock, it wasn’t as stereotypically Demonic as it was… bright. The aura was brighter than expected, and it had scents of some kind of Light Magic. Damn, that was an enigma - did demons possess Light Magic too?
 
Argh, all of this braining was too much for Daiko. Perhaps it was due to exhaustion; the latter could explain his sudden outburst earlier too. Alisa was so precious to him that hearing anyone talk shit about her, calling her a damned witch, calling her a devil worshipper - after what the two of them had achieved back in Orchidia - it just wasn’t tolerable by him. He had growled, showed signs of clear resentment and enmity towards them despite Sofia already giving them a clear, calculated ultimatum. Things should have been settled now…
 
His head lifted up in a mild surprise, feeling both Sofia’s and Alisa’s hand on each of his shoulders, holding them tightly with stern but rather compassionate looks on their faces. It was stated clearly to him that the fight is over and that he shouldn’t try and reignite a fire that they had persevered to extinguish as a main goal. Why pick a fight with the barbarians when their mission had been completed? He could’ve ended up worsening the situation… he felt like such a hopeless child.
 
It was embarrassing, really. He even hid his face away under his arms. “S-Sorry…”
 
Alisa pointed to the tents near the barbarians’ camp, and there could still be survivors in them. Survivors like Criss… people who had gotten their lives and freedoms taken away by these men. He slowly rose up on his feet and strolled towards each tent, hoping to come face to face with these victims. Things would turn brighter now that Blue Pegasus had ended their lives in slavery.
 
While some of the tents were merely camping sites for the marauders themselves, some of the shacks as well as a third of the tents contained chained-up people of all ages - from younglings, kids younger than ever, to elderly men and women who didn’t have the strength to defend themselves anymore. And to make matters worse, most of them were injured…
 
He took his time in the tents and shacks, tending to their wounds before bringing them outside. It was strange, really; if he tried his best, then deep inside of him was a cure rivaled by none in the whole realm, a cure for any gaping hole, cut, bruise and broken bones on the living creatures’ bodies. And here he was, using band-aid and thinking that was the best he could do…
 
Ironic…

WC: 905
TWC: 5074