Just A Pawn - Chapter 10 Birds Of A Feather

The location for the summoning which Lumin had chosen was a remote forest within the mundane realm, located on a small island in the middle of fair sized lake.

The island was about a kilometre across, separated from the mainland land by a massive amount of water, roughly a kilometre’s worth distance-wise.

Lumin used to come to this island to play and fish with Iris as a child, and later on she brought Pawn here for the same reason.

One of the conditions for the upcoming fight was a maximum distance from the initial summoning point of 2 kilometres, thus Lumin had thought the centre of this island to be the perfect place for such a fight to occur.

“Ha…” she sighed as she began drawing a summoning circle in the soil.

Meanwhile in the demon realm…

“Are you sure about this, with your sister I mean, it all just seems so… wrong, you know?” said Lace in a worried voice, clearly thinking Pawn would later regret her actions.

“Nah, let her do this, an older sister that does such a thing is just unforgivable,” commented Ember, though she actually didn’t know if she was older than Lace for a fact.

She had however, acted as Lace’s elder sister for over twenty years, so she felt she had every right to judge Lumin for her actions.

“But they’re sisters, I mean, could you kill me if I somehow betrayed you?” Lace asked Ember, tilting her head as she did so.

“Nope… but this is this, that is that, there’s a difference,” Ember gave an immediate reply.

“You mean a double standard,” commented Lace.

…

Pawn sat and waited silently for the summoning to occur, watching the two sisters that had taken her in bicker, Lace, for some reason, demanding to be killed if she ever turns out like Lumin, because it would be fair… while Ember out right refuses, arms crossed, regardless of what horrible things Lace threatens to do in the future.

She was polishing her bracelet as she did so, it had been returned by the Warden shortly after Pawn had been released from prison, a sign of good will to gain Pawn’s trust.

“Hey, can I show you guys something,” asked Pawn as she stood up and walked towards the two.

“Sure~,””of course,” said Ember and Lace respectively, and simultaneously, one out of curiosity, the other simply interested in changing the subject.

Pawn then, with only a single moment of hesitation, unfurled both of her wings, and then, in a single motion, she hugged the two demons, one with each arm, her wings wrapped around them as well…

“W-what, why are you-” began Ember, somewhat flustered, while Lace simply returned the hug with a smile.

“…Most spirits only show their wings to those they trust most because it shows what their soul looks like, and letting people touch them is the same as putting your life in their hands, we usually die if they’re broken and not repaired quickly, the energy, the life force, just drains away,” said Pawn as she tightened her hug with both her arms and her wings.

“B-but why are-” began Ember again, but she was quickly interrupted.

“It’s how spirits show absolute trust, so shut up… just let me hug you for a bit,” said Pawn confusing Ember to no end, Pawn had never shown any vulnerability to either her or Lace previous to this.

A minute later Pawn released the hug and retracted her wings back into herself, turning away and heading back to her chair.

“But the colour of your wings… doesn’t that mean that you’re, you know…?” questioned Lace,

“Strange right…?” replied Pawn with a smile and a question-like tone which said she her self was unsure of the reason.

Lumin’s summoning magic then finally activated, causing Pawn to disappear from the room in a flash of white light, leaving the confused Ember, and Lace who had know the whole time.

…

Lumin’s island…

Upon the activation of the summoning magic, both Iris, in the guise of the Warden, and Pawn, suddenly appeared in a flash of light, equal distance form both Lumin, and each other, a few dozen feet apart.

Lumin somewhat cringed at the sight of Pawn’s current appearance, her once blond, waist length hair, was now short and black, her blue eyes, now purple-red, an appearance typically indicative of a ‘contempt’ demons, a more focused type of wrath demon.

And having previously seen the five drained spirits, Lumin knew that the ‘wrath’ aspect held by Pawn, would have to be focused towards sprites in general in order to make sense.

“…” Lumin then opened her mouth to speak, to tell Pawn that the Warden was actually her elder sister Iris, but no words were produced, blocked via some sort of magic barrier that covered the entire island.

Lumin looked towards Iris confused, and received a wicked looking smile in return.

Iris then brought an orb from behind her back, displaying it to Lumin with pride, her countermeasure to stop Pawn from learning the truth, enchanted to block all sound within it’s radius.

Items that aided directly in combat were not allowed in this fight due to the rules, but all present could cast magic silently, and needn’t use their voices to fight, thus sound could be cancelled without issue.

And then, much to Lumin’s dismay, both Iris and Pawn dashed forwards together, heading straight towards lumin, giving no chance for her to formulate any another plan.

Pawn wielded two daggers, one with a black wooden handle and silver blade, the other with a black blade and silver handle, both of which were pointed at Lumin, lent to her by Ember and Lace.

Iris held a halberd, mostly black, yet adorned with the occasional red gem, she had slipped the orb into her pocket.

Lumin wielded a short sword and a buckler, both made of spirit metal, though she hadn’t intended to actually use them in this manner.

“…” she tried to yell, but it once again came out as just silence.

If she wanted to talk to Pawn she would first need to destroy the orb, Lumin knew this, so she charged forwards as well.

A huge collision of magic and metal occurred in this moment, shield against daggers, sword against halberd, all charged with the powers possessed by their wielders, it would have normally deafened many of those who heard it.

But there was no sound…

Pawn was currently rank 6 due to her vigorous collecting of energy, while the other two were rank 7, and this was a 2 vs 1 fight.

However, Lumin was not actually at a disadvantage despite being outnumbered, she could possibly even take 3 rank 7’s at once in a fight to the death, however, this was not a real fight to the death.

The shield bash had sent Pawn flying back mostly unharmed, while the halberd, unable to be fully blocked by the sword, dug ever so slightly into Lumin’s side.

The force from the impact to her sword sent her, and it, flying in different directions, leaving Lumin now unarmed.

Lumin needed to defend against Pawn while not actually killing her, while at the same time, having a fight to the death with Iris… she was not used to this kind of battle.

Having lost her weapon Lumin the released her wings and took to the sky, followed immediately by Iris and Pawn.

Iris’s wings were burgundy and bat-like in appearance, normal for demons capable of flight, so it was to be expected, Pawn and Lumin’s wings however, were not.

Pawn had regular spirit like wings, white and feathery, the wings of a spirit who knew they were doing the right thing, and Lumin’s wings… were pitch black, the wings of a ‘former’ spirit, consumed by guilt or other negative emotions turned inwards, a fallen spirit.

Everyone present revived a shock as a result of the scene, Pawn hadn’t become a demon at all, she had only used her ‘twisted’ support magic to pretend that she had, while Lumin, who had believed herself responsible for Pawn’s death for the past 15 years, and Iris’s before that, was now neither demon nor spirit but a being like those from the netherworld, an entirely different realm.

But this changed nothing, not for anyone present, both Pawn and Iris charged in the direction of the now unarmed Lumin once again, Pawn readying her daggers, Iris her halberd.

…

Lumin would never get to inform Pawn of the truth regarding Iris.

Pawn would be unerring in her strike against her sister.

And Iris would realize too late, that the current target of Pawn’s attack… was not Lumin at all.

Pawn did not trust anyone after her apparent betrayal by Lumin, she had thus pretended to slowly turn into a demon to ‘blend in,’ using her most prided skill, facade, the one which she hadn’t remembered to use 15 years ago, upon first arriving in the demon realm.

Though in truth, her ‘real’ outer appearance had changed to be ‘somewhat’ demon like, but only somewhat.

When Pawn had found the communication orb on the unconscious body of one of the 5 sprites she had drained, being as untrusting as she was, she naturally placed a listening spell of her own upon it.

As a result, when Iris had used it to contact Lumin, Pawn had heard it all, and realized who the ‘Warden’ really was… and where her ‘revenge’ should actually be directed.

She just needed to play along for a bit, to get out of the demon realm, and then repay her in full.

One dagger plunged into Iris’ back, while the other pierced the base of one of her wings… which, upon being damaged, caused her to fall abruptly to the ground, shock apparent on her face as she did.

Thud! Crunch!

The orb which was in her pocket broke due to the sudden contact with the ground, allowing the sound of said fall to be heard.

Yet it was only followed by more silence…

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(Optional)Epilogue: Six months later…

Three people sat together on an island located in a lake within the mundane world, a spirit, a demon, and a fallen spirit, watching the sunset as they fished from the lake.

A small newly built cabin was located behind them.

Though Iris had VERY nearly died due to damage caused to her wing, she had in fact survived, just barely, thanks to Lumin begging Pawn to save her using healing magic.

She had, however, dropped down to rank 3 due to a loss of more than 90% of her energy, much of the rest being further drained away by Pawn as punishment, making her now a Rank 1 demon with no way of gathering more as demonic energy came from the demon realm.

She could no longer fuel the magic she had used to hide her actual appearance, and now looked just like Lumin, if not for the scars, red hair, and red eyes.

The demon contract would not allow them to leave the island until one of them died, however it had no time limit for the fight… so it would be eternal.

Lumin seeking the forgiveness of Iris, Iris being ‘rehabilitated’ by Pawn, and Pawn not really regretting her actions at all, three immortal sisters together forever, or at least the foreseeable future.

With the occasional visit by two demons…