3 3. The Blade of Catastrophe

“You are indeed getting too close to me considering the fact that we have met only recently,” Vinasaka said with a smirk. They were still in the same position when Sansara realised it and finally stood up brushing himself, “Ahemm, it’s you who pulled me!”

“You are welcome,” Vinasaka replied as he too got up and stood beside him. Sansara became embarrassed at the thought that he should have thanked him first for saving him. However, when he saw the cut on his arm, he squinted his eyebrows, “You are bleeding?”

Vinasaka covered his arms quickly with his sleeves, “Ahh, about that. It’s a human body so this is normal.”

Roy gathered up some courage and said, “Pardon my insolence, but demon Lord aren’t you supposed to change your spiritual shell often to remain in the best form?”

“I didn’t,” replied Vinasaka. Sansara had observed this before. His body is always extremely cold. Even last time when he visited the netherworld, it was freezing. “Why?” he asked .

“There’s someone I wanted to recognise me the moment they see me.” Vinasaka said the words so quietly that Roy and Sila almost couldn’t hear it.

“Who?” Sansara suddenly found that he was curious. However Mohi interrupted at the same time, “Demon Lord Vinasaka? If I’m not wrong then this infamous ‘blade of catastrophe’ belonged to a demon.” Vinasaka turned to look at Mohi.

After a while, he said with a face as stiff as a rock, “It’s mine!”

The angels and Sansara almost couldn’t believe it. “I made sure to bury it deep underneath the earth. It is not possible for it to emerge unless someone has broken the seal or put a reverse incantation.”

“Why did you bury it?” Sansara asked. Seeing his curiosity, Vinasaka turned to the side where Sansara was standing, bent himself a little to bring himself face to face with the other person, smiled mischievously and asked, “Dear lord, you are awfully too curious about me. I wonder why?”

Sansara was almost going red in his face when he turned to other sides and coughed before saying, “Would you stop joking! It’s just that...I am curious about the entire thing!”

“The previous demon lord put a vicious incantation on it which enforced the blade to kill its target once determined. I had no other choice.” Vinasaka completed his explanation when he turned strict once more and continued, “However, ...” Roy and Sila froze at the sudden change of the tone of the voice, “Since this blade belonged to me, I would rather you people not interfere in this matter.”

Mohi said calmly, “Excuse me my lord, I know that the spiritual weapon is your custody but this realm where it surfaced is neither under the jurisdiction of the angels nor the demons. I am afraid you have to allow us in the investigation.” Then he bowed very politely and stepped back.

There was a visible change in his eyes which turned red and he said quietly yet everyone could feel the voice near their ears, “Are you trying to defy me?” He had almost made a blue flame in his palm when Sansara sensed the danger behind his voice and held his hands, “Vinasaka, listen to me!” In an instant, his eyes turned back to normal and the blue flame was gone. The two junior angels heaved a sigh of relief.

“Please allow me in this investigation. I want to know more about it.” He was going to bow when Vinasaka stopped him and Mohi cried from the other side, “My lord-?” But he stopped as he soon as he found Vinasaka did not allow that. He then continued, “It’s not appropriate for you to bow in front of anyone.”

Hearing this Vinasaka gave a slanted look to Mohi, and Roy and Sila were absolutely clueless about the entire thing happening in front of their eyes. He turned to Sansara and said, “I was going to ask you to come with me anyway!”

“Hmm?”

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“Kahuna!”

“You mean the land of the waves?”

“I am sorry to interrupt but I cannot allow my lord to go anywhere by himself,” Mohi interrupted in between.

“Ughh, it’s you again?!” Vinasaka rolled his eyes to face Mohi and Mohi instantly answered, “It’s the orders of the Lord Almighty.”

“There are things I still don’t know about the angels’ realm. I hope we can bring him along?” Sansara looked at him with puppy eyes and Vinasaka facepalmed himself and replied, “Alright fine!”

Sansara grinned broadly at his request being accepted. He knew that his father might made a ruckus about the fact that he met Vinasaka in spite of him not allowing it but having Mohi along might pacify the situation a bit. Watching Sansara so happy, Vinasaka couldn’t help but smile as if he had just treated a little boy to a candy.

Just then Sansara saw Mohi summoning his bird probably to send word to his father.

“Mohi stop. You should not. Once he knows we are defying his orders, things might not be that easy anymore. Please.” Mohi thought a bit and finally undid the spell.

Roy and Sila remained quiet at the back and didn’t dare say a word.

“How about we proceed to the dock then? We need to look for a ship,”Mohi said.

“Why ship? We can just use teleportation!” Vinasaka’s face was turning pale and his voice was also not sounding very good.

Sansara replied, “But if are to investigate the red corals , we might have to go deep under water around Kahuna more than being on the island itself, am I not right?”

“Very well, my lord! You are indeed intelligent,” Mohi praised him highly.

However, Sansara having felt a bit embarrassed replied, “I might have lost my memories but I didn’t hurt my head Mohi.” Vinasaka and the two other angels chuckled at the reply and finally the three set out on their voyage.

It was indeed a very beautiful ship that Mohi had acquired from the dock but it was little too big for just three of them. Sansara had already begun exploring the ship and found eatables in the steerage and ran up with three loaves of bread.

“Mohi look what I found! Here have this,” he offered one to Mohi and then peeked here and there but the other figure could hardly be seen.

“Where is Vinasaka?”

“Haven’t seen him since we started sailing.” Sansara was about to go look for him when Mohi added, “My lord, you should keep your distance from him. He is bad news I am telling you.”

Sansara looked at him and smiled, “Mohi I understand your worries. I might not have any memories of the past but I have a feeling that I have never been wrong while choosing a friend. I will go look for him.”

Sansara started looking around the deck when he finally saw a bent-over scarlet shadow right at the edge of the ship. He rushed to the figure, “Vinasaka!!”

Upon reaching there he found something he wouldn’t have actually believed if he was told by someone else.The demon lord was all green, continuously throwing up. Sansara found something near his feet and to his surprise it was Lyca in his cat form.

“Oh when did you arrive Lyca?” but he instantly changed his gaze towards Vinasaka and was about to hold him when Vinasaka haulted him by showing a hand. When he stopped for a moment, he asked Sansara, “Can you not be here now? Why did you...?” he couldn’t complete when he started being nauseous again and immediately turned towards the sea. Sansara didn’t heed much of his words and held his hair back for him and kept rubbing his back continuously, “You could’ve just said that the sea makes you sick.”

“If this isn’t the famous tale of the great Demon Overlord having motion sickness!” Sansara turned to find a very amused Mohi walking towards them with hands behind his back. “You knew?” Sansara asked all perplexed. “Well, I thought it was just fiction but looks like it’s more than just folktales,” he chuckled and added, “He’ll be fine once we land.”

Land? Landing is far away. They weren’t even half way there. “How can you joke about this?” Sansara glared at Mohi to which Mohi replied, “Pardon my lord, but this is the only time you can see the demon lord so powerless. You cannot blame me, can you?”

Sansara sighed and shook his head at the same time when Vinasaka turned around for a moment and threw a ball of fire at Mohi which Mohi fortunately dodged at the last moment. His eyes grew bigger at the sudden attack and he was about to protest when Sansara said, “You deserved that!”

Vinasaka wiped his lips and smirked mischievously looking at Mohi. He heard a calm voice beside him, “Motion sickness is fine, but why is your body heating up?”

“His vitality is weakening. I haven’t considered this before but if his forte is fire magic then the seas should weaken his vitality. Basically the energy around here is draining his powers for the time being,” Mohi explained.

“That’s not done. We need to do something,” Sansara was almost panicking when Vinasaka said in a weak voice, “Sansara...cool down. You don’t have to do anything. It’ll take an eternity to drain away all my powers.”He ended with a smug smile on his face but it vanished soon after Sansara began to speak in a chilled tone, “Are you in any situation to brag about yourself?”Both Mohi and Vinasaka wiped off all the curves off their faces instantly.

After a while, Vinasaka said, “I was just-...” but he saw that Sansara had already started chanting a spell, with his two fingers on Vinasaka’s wrist as he could feel himself replenished gradually. As soon as he finished chanting the spell, he said, “Looks like my body remembers some of the spells. I specialise in water magic but my water magic barrier will protect you from the surrounding energy here.”

“You saved me, Sansara!” Hearing that, Sansara couldn’t help but feel his ears go red. He continued, “This will help your motion sickness for now.”

“Did you bring that for me?” he peeked behind Sansara to look at what Lyca was chewing.

“Oh I completely forgot about that. Yes but looks like Lyca was more hungry.” They both smiled while Lyca finished everything. Things turned back to normal when suddenly the ship was almost overturned by a huge wave. All three of them and Lyca held on to the railing but soon the disturbances stopped. A beautiful woman dressed in blue stood in front of them. Mohi greeted, “Ocean angel Adira!”

Sansara and Vinasaka both greeted her. “Guardian angel Mohi, my lord, demon overlord, may I know what is the occasion?” They briefed her about the situation. “We may need your assistance, ocean angel,” Mohi said politely. “Well, the coral sword that you are talking about is no ordinary coral. It thrives in the deepest ocean. If you are to counter a red coral sword, then you need another red coral spirit weapon. Besides a blade of such elemental power being cursed is not going to be easy to deal with in the first place.”

“Is there no way to lift the curse?” asked Sansara.

“Only when the curse is fulfilled,” Adira answered.

“No need, I’ll go and get the red coral,” Vinasaka said.

“Yes, demon overlord,” Ocean Angel replied very politely. If Lord Almighty is the head of the angels then Vinasaka was the head of the demons. No being could defy either of them.

“You cannot go. I cannot let you, not in this state,” Sansara turned towards Vinasaka.

Sansara claimed that he should go instead to which both Vinasaka and Mohi protested. At last it was decided that Mohi would go. Mohi dived into the ocean when they reached near the Kahuna island but soon after he came back up. “I can’t, my vitality is no match,”he said as he climbed aboard.

After a lot of persuasion, Sansara was allowed to finally go in. For the last time, Vinasaka still questioned him, “Are you sure?” but he was silenced by Sansara, “Are you doubting my abilities?”

“It’s not that,” Vinasaka almost went flustered.

“Vinasaka....trust me okay!” The demon lord finally agreed and nodded.

He dived into the ocean. His swimming skills were no doubt amazing given that he wielded water magic. But a considerable amount of time has passed, Mohi and Vinasaka growing restless enquired, “What’s wrong?” “Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

The ocean angel said, “Should have..unless...he has encountered water demon Suiyo.”