Euphoria Blake: Infernally Divine

Chapter Three: Rude Awakening

Euphoria awoke to a strange, and more chaotic world. No longer the one she knew, but one overrun by magical beings. You could hear the roar of tanks firing, creatures roaring in frenzy. They military had more than their hands full as they began retreating.

She stood up weakly, stumbling along as she searched for shadow. She was horrified as she saw corpses of dead mutant bird-women lying on the ground. Then seeing shadow under attack by a harpie. The harpie had swooped down picking shadow up almost effortlessly, she drew her bow and arrow.

However, she simply could not shoot in her exhausted state. Fortunately, shadow struggled enough to bite tje harpy's leg and break free. Shadow fell to the ground, wounded and tired. Euphoria drew a blade from its sheath, limping as fast as she could towards shadow. She knew it was only a matter of time before it returned to attack once more, and she laid over her.

Euphoria held out her knife in anticipation, but knew this was the end. The harpy swooped down as Euphoria said her last goodbyes...BANG!

A mysterious man shot the harpy in the head. His long black hair covering his eyes, but then he began to disappear into smoke. A twelve year old girl appeared from the smoke. "How?..." The girl began drawing weird circles on the ground and dripped blood onto them. "This will help."

She had summoned medicine from thin air, Euphoria was boggled at the sight. "I've been helping you stay alive for about two days." As she began to drink the elixir, Euphoria began to feel a surge of energy rush through her. "Layton has been fighting those weirdos off, till we went to make this medicine. I noticed them flying over and we came back as quick as we could and-" Euphoria put two fingers on the lips, "sshh... We have all day, take a deep breath."

They limped alongside Arianne to a make-shift hut. "Is this where you live?... Whats your name sweetie?" "Dont treat me like a little girl, I kept you alive, didnt I?" She saw a fire in her eyes, much like her own. "So... Where are your parents?"

"Dead. They were killed by a monster as we tried escaping the city." "Whats wrong with the city?" "Its overrun by monsters and the army's been triying to fight them off." She looked around and saw salted raw meat on a crude table. "Then who's layton and how did he disappear into smoke?"

"Magic. He's my guardian, well... He's a demon, but he's not a Bad demon..." Euphoria got a puzzled look about her, as she started to remember. "What do you mean? Aren't all demons evil?" "Nope, most used to be angels. Just don't say it around layton, he gets sad or something." "So how did you summon him? Can't imagine you killing anyone just to get him on your side."

"It wasn't hard to summon him. I was badly hurt and nearly died, but he appeared with a contract-" " And you signed? No questions asked?!" "I was three seconds away from dying, he sensed I didnt want to die. He appeared out of thin air and killed my parent's killer."

She then summoned Layton to go grill the meat outside, and keep watch. "What about the medicine?" "layton made it, he also taught me a little summoning magic." Arianne drew the weird circle on the ground again. "Imagine and empty space, place the thing in the middle, and drip a little blood. Poof! Its gone until you summon it later."

Layton came back inside with a grim expression and cooked meat. He picked up his brown cowboyish looking hat and pistols. As he headed out, Arianne stopped Euphoria from standing. "Stay inside, Layton will take care of it."

She seemed scared and they hid near an opening that served as a window. "Some Army soldiers are here again, they think I'm a witch." Euphoria looked outside to find layton dodging bullets and returning fire, literal fire. Layton holstered his weapons immediately and began to sign a lot of words. "Layton is mute, but he says magic is based on words not speech."

The ground under the soldiers softened, burying them until only their heads remained. Arianne looked away and held her ears, she knew thia would be too much her. Layton drew his guns and walked around as he executed all of them. "He says those people are evil, they have orders to kill me because I can use a little magic. He read their minds, its why he always kills them all."

As layton came back inside Euphoria fixed her eyes on her own weapons. "I told you he's not evil, but if you're gonna be all paranoid about him I'll unsummon him." As he began to disappear, layton bowed towards Euphoria and with his cold red eyes peered with admiration. The smoke left behind was sucked into Arianne's chest, near her heart. "Is... Is... His soul tied to yours?" "Yeah, but he's super strong so I don't worry about it." They both knew if Arianne or layton died, both would.

"I'm tired of talking, let's just eat. You can leave when you feel better." Two more days passed as she trained in summoning and healing techniques. Arianne was her medicine tutor, since demons are cursed to never fully succeed at healing. Soon enough she mastered it in a couple of days, by then she was completely healthy. They parted ways from arianne and layton, wishing each other luck. Euphoria needed answers, and to find Antares.