26 (Ch 26)Rage

Faced with imminent death a very drastic changed occurred inside Faith. Feelings and emotions, fears and anxieties, All the things he thought were gone from his previous self came flooding back.

His mind bent backwards and reformed again and again as the mental trauma brought on by his reincarnation as well as the pain and suffering his previous life had melted together. Rage, Pure unhindered Rage. That's what festered his mind. In his past life, he'd become numb to the emotions and Trauma but with reincarnation and its attempts to repair his soul…

…It had inadvertently shattered it further, creating a warped personality similar to that of split personality disorder yet far worse.

It was also tied in with the anxieties brought by imposter syndrome, all things he'd been able to ignore as long as he surpassed his past life's memories.

Faith's eye's gained a glow of Rage that no normal man let alone child could produce, frightening even the minotaur holding his neck, which was on the verge of snapping. They were burning with a fiery hatred that threatened to devour everything and everyone that would attempt to take its newfound happiness away.

'What the fuck? I kill this kid now!!' - The minotaur, Fadil, thought tightening his grip.

Yet the boy's neck didn't budge one inch, as his skin slowly morphed to scales over his neck and lower jaw, their pitch-black colour absorbing all light as they gained a red glow.

The fire of hatred and rage sparked another flame inside Faith as he wanted nothing more than to end Fadil's life. From his dragon heart, shadowing his normal one, a small ember of purified shadow magic burned. Heeding the command, it flowed from his heart and into his lungs filling them with strength.

Faiths pupils formed into vertical slits as the inky black of them seeped into the whites of his eyes. His body slowly gained a slightly ethereal aspect as if it was becoming a shadow itself and his hair white as snow, slowly gained black streaks bathed in a black and red aura.

'DIE!!!!' - Faith screamed internally, opening his mouth wide open and expelling the strength held in his lungs.

From his jaw with its Lower row of teeth sharpening and pointed like knives, a jet of black flames shoot forward towards the minotaur in question.

'SHIT, I KNEW IT' - He thought as he dropped the kid and tried to dodge, but soon realised it was too late as the flames simply moved to quick.

Giving up that idea he decided to tank the blow and reinforced his body with as much Aura as he could muster but unfortunately, as he would come to find, these were no ordinary flames.

The second they came into contact with his mana skin, they simply passed through it, moving on to his body and setting him alight in these flames straight from hell. There weren't hot, they were as cold as death itself and no matter how much aura or magic he tried to use to extinguish them it proved futile.

"ARRRRRRHHHHHHHH!!!! YOU DEVIL!!!!!" - Fadil Screamed, rolling around like a mad man trying to find any source of warmth to latch on too.

Yet like a parasite the only thing that latched on was the flames as they continued to devour Fadil, filled with all the hatred and rage their master carried.

Faith once dropped couldn't move, his body was out of mana and his heart was beating much slowly since he'd spit out those flames. All the physical changes he'd went through disappeared and his mental state return to the normal Faith exodus now that Death wasn't seconds away.

"haha, serves you right… White-haired, red-eyed boys and minotaurs never mix well" - he laughed remembering a particularly powerful Rabbit.

That was when he felt a nibble at the end of his leg as he was dragged forward a little.

"Huh?… oh, it's you" - Faith said, looking down at the silver fox seemly wanting to help him.

"Look if your gonna take me somewhere then go that way" - he said pointing to the way his shadows showed him. The Rexel Hesitated for a minute, before nodding and pulling him like it.

'Not how I imagined spending my day' - Faith thought

'Me neither but life is like that sometimes' - something with a feminist voice replied, although it was a little deep

Faith was stunned when his thoughts replied to him, like some kind of genie lived in his head.

'A.I partner is that you?' - He asked, wondering if he'd received a common troupe.

'No dumbass it's me, Luna, the thing pulling you. What the hells an A.I anyway' - The voice mind replied, making Faith stare towards his newfound animal buddy in a stupor.

'My dreams of friendship are not yet lost' - Faith motivated himself.

The Rexel dragged him along the bumpy ground as they got closer and closer to what his shadows deemed safety. He could still hear the screaming of the minotaur behind him but he didn't care.

'Sooo... Since I saved you, does that make us friends now?' - Faith asked the Fox that was now slightly bigger than him. It apparently could shapeshift but having read up about familiars Faith knew this wasn't particularly special.

'I'm pretty sure you didn't save me, considering that minotaur was after you, to begin with' - The Rexel, Luna, revealed.

This revelation shocked Faith because he couldn't remember what he'd done to make so many people want him dead. The only clue he had was the Noxis thing the minotaur was raving on about.

'Are you talking about the Noxis thing?' - Faith asked.

'Yeah, he mentioned something about being here to kill a child of Noxis and after he said you were infected by it the reason he chased you became pretty clear, at least that's my best guess' - The Rexel replied, remembering her Fathers last moments, sending shivers of fear and anger down her spine.

'Shit it really just isn't my day today, wait how are we even talking to each other' - Faith asked remembering he didn't initiate this.

'I bit your hand when you fell and formed a blood pact so we had a better chance of living' - Luna replied while pulling the boy who didn't seem content on shutting up.

'Wait you can do that without my consent, I feel like that should be kinda illegal' - Faith replied horrified of the prospect of the bullet he just missed.

Being forced into a contract with most familiars wasn't such a bad thing but imagining the possibility of forming one with a not so friendly one sent chills down his surprise.

'it's pretty simple really, We familiars are stuck with our blood pact for life while you can have as many as you want, that's why we're the deciding party' - She enlightened the annoying white-haired devil.

'Oh… So you did want to be my friend, you could've just asked. I'll admit that shyness is pretty adorable though' - Faith said with a cheeky smile.

'I'll just stop dragging you' - She replied, in a blunt tone

'Point taken' - Faith said shutting up and taking the threat completely seriously

They kept moving forward towards the point of interest and eventually arrived at yet another clearing only this one had one major difference from the last. In the centre of it was a gaping pit that felt like it could swallow you whole just by going near it.

'Well this can't be right, did you change directions?' - Faith asked through his telepathic connections with Luna.

She shook her head in response equally unsure of why they'd come across the pit. Even for her living in this forest from birth this place was a no go and her father rarely talked about it.

'My shadow sense says its safe down there but I get the feeling this is a place I was told to avoid, do you know anything more than the fact that its dangerous?' - Faith asked Luna unsure of how to proceed.

Stranger than that his personal shadow had been vibrating and absorbing mana for the past few minutes but it took him until now to notice.

"Why is it absorbing mana though, it's just a shadow… wait are you Alive?" - Faith asked, poking his own shadow a bit with a curious expression.

Meanwhile

Fadil was just having the worst time. He'd been sent on a mission since it was the best chance to Intercept a core part of the balance held by light and dark. It should have been easy considering the Childs age but just as he was almost dead the boy had turned into a full-blown devil.

The flames he spit were as cold as death and even when he finally put them out, they didn't stop and just came back a few seconds later. It took him a while to figure it out but the reason became crystal clear when he looked back at his shadow, which like him, was on fire.

The flames seemed to not target a person but their shadow that's why they could burn through barriers and were so damn hard to put out.

When they eventually went out he was shocked yet again at a very, very disturbing discovery. Part of his mana capacity and even life force had been stolen from him. Not once in his entire life had he ever met an opponent that could steal someone's capacity but he knew such a being couldn't be allowed to live.

Even wounded and burned Fadil chased after the little demon, hoping he couldn't breathe fire more than once in a day.