9 Dual Swords

After passing empty alleys and a nicely paved road, they reached the mansion Pieffer was talking about.

The burning front yard easily caught the attention of Aries. In the middle of a huge fire was a man enveloped in a lion-shaped flame.

Aries was amazed that a person could be covered by smoldering fire and not get scorched. Pieffer was right. A Zodiac Knight would always stand out. That man in flames was probably the one they were looking for. Not only because flame could not burn him but because his long hair was auburn and it had spikes that looked like tiny flames. His red-orange eyes were filled with rage and agony.

Though they wanted to head straight towards the front yard,  they could not. Blocking the gate of the mansion was the armored man wielding an axe and at least thirty possessed people.

"Let us pass or you will all die," Aries warned just in case it would lessen the number of possessed people they had to kill.

But as he had somehow expected, no one scuttled away in fear.

"If you want to die then die," Aries opened his right hand and the crimson sword quickly manifested on it. He tightened the grip on the hilt before rushing towards the man with an enormous axe.

Sunrei, Pieffer, and Siorre synchronized their movements with him as if they were fighting alongside each other for a long time.

The enemies swarmed towards them, and with the limited amount of holy water left for them to use, they had to spray it on the smaller opponents with the hope that the corrupted souls possessing them were still weak.

Siorre was an astonishing spear wielder. Both her hands could use the stick well. Her footsteps were light and swift. Her slashes were lethal. Most of the time she was doing a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn yet she was not showing any sign of dizziness. She was like a graceful ballerina but with a dangerous stick synchronizing with her movements. She also had this ability to make herself vanish and reappear wherever she wanted around her enemy. But she could only do it at least a meter away from her target. The amethyst blade of her spear can shower purple-colored water at her opponents that was slowing them down. It was different from the plain water she showered at Aries earlier that day. And with her excellent skill, Siorre could take care of ten opponents at once.

Aries had seen Sunrei fight. For a crown prince, he was good at wielding a sword. Aries thought that anyone with a high status was a total wimp. But Sunrei could really fight. He was handling seven enemies on his own with irritating finesse.

Pieffer had also shown Aries what she could do. Though not as skilled as Sunrei and Siorre, she was doing an excellent job in advancing towards Leon. She was occasionally being halted by one or two enemies, but she could shove them away with her thin sword. She was like a shimmering fish swimming through a sea of possessed people.

Seeing that his comrades were doing well, Aries focused on the armored man with an enormous axe.

It was frustrating for him to fight enemies that could not be killed. Aries never attacked his targets unless he had a one hundred percent chance of succeeding.

Ever since he arrived in that hell of a place, he was doing a lot of things that he had never done before. Aries always worked alone and in the shadows. His enemies were dropping dead even before they felt his presence. And even though the House of Lion was covered in darkness, they were still in an open alley and in plain sight of his enemies.

Aries was not being bothered by the weight of his broadsword, but its length and width could get a little distracting. He wanted a weapon that was shorter, thinner, and easier to swing towards his enemy.

He was rushing towards the axe wielder when his sword broke in half, from the hilt down to the blade. It magically transformed according to his will. He was now wielding a shorter and thinner sword in each of his hands.

Aries smiled as his movements became faster and more precise. He attacked the axe wielder who already swung the axe in his direction. He had already seen that movement and it was too slow for him. He had easily evaded the axe and quickly slashed his pair of blades at the neck of his opponent.

As soon as the axe wielder dropped dead on the ground, the corrupted soul instantly oozed out of the corpse and possessed another body not far from him. But before the corrupted soul could use that body, Aries stabbed the new vessel to death.

He kept on annihilating his opponent's new vessel until he had seen Pieffer reach the lion-shaped flame.

"You have no more body to possess," Aries stabbed the last body nearest to him and it dropped lifeless on the ground.

"You've changed," the corrupted soul was hovering in front of Aries. "How can you kill all these people? They are citizens of Serestral!"

"You devoured their souls," Aries assumed then gave the corrupted soul a cold glare. "You are the one who killed them. Not me."

"I WILL KILL YOU!!!" the corrupted soul hastily advanced towards Aries. It aimed at his wounded chest.

Aries was surprised at the intensity of the impact. He thought that a mere smoke would not send him on his knees, but it did. The corrupted soul was trying to penetrate his body through his wound.

"Aries!!!"

"I'm fine!" he bellowed back to Pieffer. "Just get Leon!"

"I will devour your soul!!!" the corrupted soul, even without a mouth, can be annoyingly loud.

"Fine," Aries touched the dark smoke and pushed it deep within his chest. "Try all you want."

Aries collapsed with his back on the ground as the corrupted soul seeped within his wound and penetrated inside his body. There was a painful and cold sensation within him that lasted for what seemed like an eternity. His senses were muddled. For a moment, all he could sense were darkness and deafening silence. Then memories that were certainly not from him had flooded his already confused and exhausted brain. Everything flashed so swiftly that he could neither recognize nor remember a single memory.

"ARIES!!!"

The memories stopped flashing, his body had been numbed, and darkness covered him one more time.

"ARIES!!!"

The distant voice that was persistently calling his name was somewhat familiar and annoying. But he could only listen to it.

"ARIES, WAKE UP!!!"

A jolt in the chest had instantly awakened Aries. He was still lying on the ground. The person calling his name was Sunrei. He was kneeling beside him. He looked like a mess as if his enemies had given him a hard time winning.

"Finally, you are awake," Sunrei helped him up. "But where did the corrupted soul go? I didn't see it leave your body."

"Later," Aries glanced at Pieffer.

Though she had succeeded in reaching Leon, she was having a difficult time calming the house leader down.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" Leon roared and the flame surrounding his body had intensified and shoved Pieffer and Siorre a few feet away from him.

"Leon, it's us!!!" Siorre waved her spear at the flame and managed to cut an opening but it closed within only a second.

"LEAVE!!!" Leon roared one more time as he failed to recognize the people in front of him.

"Leon, please!!! We are here to help!!! Hear us out first!!! Pieffer was also trying to shatter his flaming defense but all the openings she and Siorre were creating had been closing up too quickly.

Aries quickly got up on his feet, dashed in front of Leon, then asked Siorre, "Your spear can spray water. Can't you put out this fire with it?"

"I've been trying ever since you've been knocked out by that axe-wielding corrupted soul," Siorre snapped at him. "But as you had seen, his flame regenerates at a surprising speed!"

"Then let's attack faster," Aries swayed as he released his dual sword. For a split second, an axe had flashed in his mind.

"You don't look well," Pieffer was staring at him with concern.

"Let's finish this quickly so we can all rest," Aries tightened the grip on his dual swords.

Pieffer, Sunrei, and Siorre also pointed their blades at Leon.

"NOW!" Aries relentlessly slashed his swords against the enormous lion flame.

Pieffer, Sunrei, and Siorre followed his lead. They waved their weapons in quick succession that the flame failed to regenerate on time and Pieffer finally managed to grab Leon by his shoulder.

"Leon, we are here to help," the princess leaned closer to the flame wielder. She was struggling against the flame that was shoving her away.

It was astonishing how the fire looked terrifyingly scorching but none of them was burning. One more thing that amazed Aries was the flame sometimes felt ridiculously solid and could shove them away by a few feet.

"He will not listen!" Aries impatiently concluded and slashed his way through Leon. When he was close enough to land an effective blow, he willed the sword in his right hand to vanish then clenched his hand into a fist and punched Leon hard on the face. "Calm down and listen to what we have to say!!!" Aries roared as Leon looked away from Pieffer and glanced angrily in his direction.

"LEAVE!!!" the flame around him intensified and Leon finally succeeded in throwing Pieffer, Sunrei, and Siorre away from him.

Only Aries remained. He grabbed the neck of the flame wielder.

"You cannot make me leave!!!" he tightened his grip on Leon's neck. "Unless you stop this madness, I will not let go of your neck! And if you will keep on rejecting us, I will not hesitate to…"

Aries froze. Something within him sent shivers all throughout his body and an enormous axe flashed repeatedly in his mind.

Kill him…

It was a faint whisper that echoed endlessly and pounded painfully inside his head.

The axe wielder was trying to take control.

No…

Aries struggled to maintain ownership of his own body.

He blinked away the image of an axe and managed to glance back at Leon, but the flaming fist of the latter was only a few inches away from his face. It landed on his right cheek before he could move his face to evade it. And on the next second, he was flying away from Leon.

When Aries hit the ground, he coughed out blood and his vision blurred but he could still get a glimpse of someone rushing towards him and someone tearing through the flames to get to Leon.

Aries wanted to get up on his feet, but he was rapidly losing grip on his consciousness. All he could do was close his eyes and succumb to sleep.

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