Chapter 88 - Truth About Demon Summoning Part 2
* The Soul Of Wind *
AN: not a song, but a YT channel. I\'m not promoting whoever the owner is, but letting you know that I listened to one of their songs while writing this. The songs all have the same name, so name won\'t help.
***
"How did you get so many?" Camilla asked with a look of betrayal.
"I don\'t know..." Raven said after a long pause. She actually had no idea how or why. At first she thought the two demons were playing tricks on her, but now she just didn\'t know.
Feeling the looks of betrayal from the group, Raven felt like her heart was about to shatter to a thousand pieces.
Maybe she looked strong and confident to others, but her power and self-esteem arises from the fact that she has her family and friends to support her.
Without them, she\'d go back to being the broken soul she was at Lady Luck\'s place.
"I\'m sorry..." she muttered to the group with a pained expression. \'Maybe I should just leave them be?\' she thought to herself with teary eyes.
\'Now that Jaimie knows, he\'ll think I\'m a galactic assassin or something. Heck, even the group would think that I\'ve lied to them.
\'I can\'t do that to them. Or rather, my heart can\'t withstand seeing the way they\'ll look at me after today.\'
Kayla was strangely quiet that Raven thought she didn\'t love her anymore. Needless to say, that made her situation even worse.
Feeling the pressure on her heart increase by the second, Raven started sweating while breathing heavily.
"Hey kid!" Camilla suddenly yelled to get Raven out of her trance, "damn, you\'re so sensitive and moody, you know that? I didn\'t mean that I doubt you, I\'m just curious and worried at the same time."
Looking up again at Camilla she saw her smiling warmly, "but just now, you were looking at me with a- a weird look..." Raven could swear Camilla was mad at her.
"What weird look?" Camilla was confused as she was only worried at her.
Looking at Camilla again, she saw a warm yet confused expression on her face. "But don\'t you think that I\'ve lied to you, and betrayed you-" Raven stopped mid sentence feeling rather tired all of a sudden.
"Hey, no! No one looked at you weird," Maria reassured, "maybe that idiot Jamie but that\'s it. Raven, you know we\'ll never doubt you right? Me, Maya, Axane, Rain, Camilla, Kuru, and Joey... we all love you and we\'d back you up even if you become the queen of devils."
"Yea, don\'t worry about him though I\'ll kill him if he goes out of line again, hehe," Camilla laughed while pointing at Jaime and making a One-Word-And-Imma-Cut-You-Down gesture.
Looking at Maria, Raven saw her soft smile and felt warm inside. Camilla and the rest of the group had similar expressions as well.
"Ah... I should have known-" Saying that, Raven felt the world spin around her as her vision got blurry all of a sudden.
Closing her eyes, she gave in to the headache and dizziness assaulting her ruthlessly.
Right before she could hit the ground, Keith was already by her side, carrying her in a princess-carry.
The group panicked for a second before Rain had confirmed that it\'s just exhaustion. She had overexerted herself after all.
***
After putting Raven in her room and making sure she was alright, Keith and Calcer disappeared back to the demon world as they\'ve completed their part of the contract and their bodies started to lose energy.
"They\'re so nice, right?" Rain wondered out loud, "they don\'t strike me as \'demon\' material."
Remembering how Calcer was so sad about leaving Raven, and how Keith felt bad about what he\'d said and how he\'d caused her problems, Maria nodded slowly.
Calcer of course hadn\'t left before making sure at least five people were going to tell Raven to summon him again.
"They\'re definitely better than Jaime," she said while directly staring at him in the eyes.
"You know," Maya said with her hands under her chin on the kitchen table, "I\'ll destroy you, and I f*cking mean it, I will destroy the f*CK out of you if you yell at Raven again."
Jaime didn\'t know why, but even though he couldn\'t see the girl\'s expressionless face, he could feel the chill behind her voice.
"Listen, I understand that she\'s your sister and friend or whatever, but you have to be careful around her," Jaime argued, "she\'s still- what eleven years old? And has already killed thousands, what does that tell you?
"She\'s obviously hiding something from you!"
Standing up slowly, Maya approached Jaime with rage boiling in her eyes, "What did you just say you little dipsh*t? I don\'t care who the f*ck you think you are, S ranker or not, I\'ll kill you slowly and painfully if you keep this attitude of yours.
"Raven is the one that gave me my life. She\'s the one that has saved countless people and lives." she refrained from mentioning Kuru since she didn\'t want the EDA to interfere and claim him dangerous, since he used to be a dangerous weapon and all.
"What have you done? Aside from fighting monsters? I bet you do it for fame and other sh*t-" Maya wanted to continue but Camilla patted her shoulder, prompting her to stop.
"Listen Maya," Camilla said calmly, "Jaime might be an idiot, but he\'s not evil ok? He\'s had a- let\'s say a bad experience with demon summoning and that\'s why the subject rubs him off the wrong way.
"But on the other hand, you Jaime," now she looked at him, " you have to trust Raven. I know she always seems different and... almost alien, with her methods and actions. But she\'s in fact the kindest person I\'ve ever met.
"You know, she\'s also saved my life... believe it or not, she was a D or C ranker at the time and she still saved an S ranker. What makes me trust her blindly is that we had a small fight before she saved me."
"You had a fight? And how did she save you?" Jaime asked curiously.
"Well, I- I kinda did the same thing you were trying to do," Camilla said in a sad expression as she remembered the events that had unfolded in the cave, "I didn\'t trust her even after all she\'s done for me, and I accidentally flared my mana and almost hurt everyone in the cave.
"Seeing how I almost hurt Maya and Maria, Raven got mad angry and- anyway, I was kicked out.
"While I was wandering around in the forest, I got attacked by two strong monsters, and even though I killed one of them, the other almost got me.
"But in the exact moment before the grim reaper could claim my soul, Raven appeared out of nowhere and saved my a*s, haha" Camilla laughed softly remembering how mad and sad Raven was when she found out that Camilla was hurt because she wasn\'t allowed to stay in the cave.
"I remember her yelling that she\'s the one that almost killed me, because she kicked me out, and not the monster." Camilla omitted this part but she remembered how at one point during the fight, Raven had a dark sadistic laugh on her face, while her aura was terrifyingly evil.
If Camilla was told that that face was the face of the one who\'d slaughtered thousands of people, she\'d believe it instantly. But at the same time, she knew that wasn\'t the same Raven.
\'The girl needs help... I don\'t know who or what was that, but if it\'s inside of her, she might be in danger too...\'
"I see..." Jaime said in reply to the silent atmosphere after Camilla\'s anecdote. *sigh* "If you\'re that sure that the girl herself is good, then it could be that the souls within her body were inserted by someone else..."
"What does that mean? And isn\'t that dangerous?" Rain asked.
"It is dangerous, but give me some time and I\'ll ask around. At this point all I know is unconfirmed rumours that I\'ve heard around so I\'m not sure."
Standing up, Jaime took a last look before walking towards the door, "tell her I said sorry..."
"My queen," Jakol said after Jaimie had left, while looking at the still standing Maya who was clenching her fists super hard. "I can ask around my people as well, we\'re one of the few races that has grasped many secrets-"
"Do it," Maya said cutting him off. Jakol had asked to stick around to protect Maya in case another portal appears.
While she hasn\'t tried the bracelet yet, to determine her race, she didn\'t care. She wanted to ask Raven for advice first and so she decided to wait for her to wake up.
Typing some weird characters on a small hologram, Jakol confirmed that his team is working on it, trying to find information about how would thousands of souls get into the same body while only one is being actively expressed.
Jakol had used a device to turn himself into a human, or rather just his appearance. Now he looked like a young man with silver eyes and matching hair. No feathers or visible alien technology could be seen directly on his body.
He only had some causal clothes on that made him look rather stylish and way different than before.
"Yo Maria," Camilla asked in a casual tone. "Are you sure you\'re ok with having the kid go in peace? I mean he literally almost killed Raven."
Thinking about it for a second, Maria replied, "I think it\'s alright... Raven wouldn\'t have been hurt by an idiot like him."
Smiling weakly, Camilla patted Maria on the shoulder while giving her a quick massage.
The kid that had attacked Raven was named Kenny, sixteen year old B ranker that had thought Raven was suspicious when she had shown so much power against the S ranked monster.
And when he saw a bunch of flying aliens and decided to follow them, he found himself looking at a \'suspicious\' transactions between the aliens and the girl, so he thought she was making a deal of sorts with them.
Since Raven had sustained no damages, the kid was released to the hospital to heal his face, without any charges, especially that Maira and Maya didn\'t care.
They had already given him a punching bag treatment for a short period of time, after all. He\'d never forget his encounter with Raven and will always remember to be careful and not jump into random accusations.
"Say Camilla," Maria said, "what do you think about me, Maya, and Raven\'s relationship... Is it too complicated?"
Camilla could tell that Maria was tired and didn\'t want to discuss Raven while she wasn\'t present.
"Complicated... no," Camilla replied as she didn\'t even know the depth of what this family of three had shared. "But from what I know, I can tell you\'re really close to eachother, it\'s heart warming."
At that, Maria relaxing her shoulders and smiled, "Uhm, I think we all care about eachother. And the unconditional trust and love we have is what had made us reach this far."
"Yea, you\'re gonna have to explain to me what your story is since I really don\'t know much, but that\'s a conversation for a different time."
"Oh right," she paused the massage and said, "why don\'t you go sleep next to her? I\'m sure it\'ll make her feel better when she wakes up with you by her side."
"I can? Wouldn\'t that be weird or maybe embarrassing for her?" Maria wanted to, but at the same time didn\'t want Raven to be uncomfortable.
If anything, Maria understood exactly how deep Raven\'s wounds ran...
"I\'m pretty sure she will be happy." Camilla said with a smile.
Not needing any extra motivation, Maria grabbed Maya and ran towards Raven\'s room.
"Eh? Me too?" Maya was surprised.
"You\'re her sister, do you want to support her?" Maria asked.
Looking down in disappointment, Maya nodded and kept going.
"What an awkward family..." Camilla said with a smile as she sat down near the big kitchen window watching the sky rain, cleaning up the blood and bad memories.
The group all smiled warmly at that, they\'ve all been and are basically strangers to eachother. Their only real connection is the three girls that they\'ve randomly met.
"Joey, you\'ll have to tell me more about Raven one day," Camilla said as she took her eyes off of the beautiful relaxing rain outside, "Axane, why don\'t you go get some rest too, you look tired."
"..." Axane was disappointed that Maria hadn\'t invited her to Raven\'s room and it was rather visible to the others.
*sigh* "Alright, Joey and Jakol, I\'m sorry my dudes but you gotta sleep on the couches in one of the living rooms," Camilla said as she stood up, "You lot follow me. We\'ll take over Raven\'s room hehe."
"Uhm!" Axane nodded cheerfully. Rain only smiled warmly. Kuru tried his best not to jump happily but he still did it.
"Oh... Kuru..."
"Pretty please... I\'m not even human," Kuru made some expert puppy eyes trying to convince Camilla to allow him in too.
"Sorry bud," Camilla laughed sadistically, "you keep Jakol and Joey\'s company, hehe"
Not too long after, Raven\'s room had three girls on a queen sized bed and three others on the floor, with a tiny baby in her own small portable bed.
Kuru wasn\'t happy about staying with the two boys, but for some reason, just the fact that Raven was safe made him feel better and he slept quickly after.
"You seem happy..." Jakol muttered to Joey who was stroking Kuru\'s silky dark mane.
"Uhm," Joey nodded, "I was thinking how she always seem to be able to find the best in all people...
"Maybe Raven is not the most cheerful, nor the strongest, but she always takes care of her people. People always flock around her because of that.
"It\'s just heartwarming, knowing that I\'ve been her first bodyguard and first real friend. Even though she doesn\'t remember, I\'m sure I\'ll gain back her trust."
\'Rest assured, your highness, many people care for you and love you, they always will. No matter the hardships or obstacles standing in your way, you\'ll always be able to overcome them with your friends.
\'Rest assured, your highness, even though you don\'t know what tomorrow is hiding for you, know that whatever it is... it will be ok....\'