Kanami's Choice

It has been a few days since the Bounty had been placed on Albo's head. Ever since she teleported to the capital city of Atrila, she had been living there.

She stays at an inn and works at the nearby flower shop. She is known as the cheerful girl in town, and people often visit the shop to greet her.

Whenever she walks home, she sees a bounty poster and often gets sad.

"Bounty for the new Demon Lord's head! Rewards will be handed out by the queen herself."

Kanami tries to deny that the new Demon Lord is Albo, but deep down, she knows. Once she finishes her work for the day, she returns to her room at the inn. Under her breath, she talks to herself.

"Albo wouldn't do something like that, and if she was a Demon Lord, there has to be a good reason."

As she said that, she looks out the window to see the queen herself and a bunch of knights walking towards the capital gates. The queen was a tall lady, with white skin, black hair, and a full plate of armor mixed with royal robes.

"Why is the queen out with her knights?"

She quickly runs downstairs and asks the innkeeper where the knights are going.

"Well, apparently, they're going to retrieve the bodies of the dead adventurers and give them a proper burial."

Kanami realizes this is her only chance to see if Albo is a Demon Lord or not. She leaves the inn and sneakily follows the knights.

The group of soldiers arrives at the tower, with all the bodies outside the tower cleaned up, the soldiers use elemental magic to jump up or reach the floating tower.

Kanami, not knowing any magic, however, decides to wait outside since she has no way of getting up the tower, when suddenly, a feels a hand touch her shoulders.

"You must be one curious girl to come out to a dangerous place like this."

Kanami turns around to see the queen that was leading the soldiers talking to her.

"Your highness!"

"You don't have to call me that, just call me Viera," she said as she smiled.

"Right, I can explain why I'm here."

"You can explain later, for now, I have to go up there and assist my knights."

Kanami then pulls on Viera's clothes. Viera looks back to see Kanami with her head down as if she was desperate.

"Please take me with you, I'll be responsible for whatever happens, please I need to confirm something."

"What's your name?"

"Shini Kanami."

Viera's eyes widen, she then tells her, "If you're going to take responsibility for what happens then sure, but remember-"

Before Viera could finish, screams could be heard from inside the tower. She picks up Kanami and leaps to the tower gates. Once she gets there, she dashes up the stairs to where her knights were.

Once both of them arrive, Kanami and Viera see headless corpses of the knights on the ground, and a shadow figure in the back. The character dashes towards Viera, but she quickly dodges its strikes.

Kanami, still unable to see who this figure is, steps back for her safety. Viera and the character start to dash all over the place, and the clashing of swords could be heard.

A few of the knights that got past the figure run back towards Viera

"Your highness! We found the body of Kos Sivongsa here! We should head back now!"

Viera, still in the middle of the fight, replies to the knights, "Go! You can't fight her. Let me take care of this."

As the knights start to run towards the entrance, Viera finally talks to the figure, "I'm assuming you killed Trilrak? Were you his apprentice?"

A loud, angry voice replies to Viera, "Who are you calling apprentice? All I wanted to be was to save everyone! Do something that you couldn't do!"

As the figure is consumed with anger, it swings the sword so hard that Viera is sent to the next floor. The character then spots Kanami and dashes to her.

Kanami realizes she only has moments to live and accepts her death. When, suddenly, she feels something, a liquid. She opens her eyes to see Albo, her best friend, her childhood friend, in tears.

Crying, Albo asks Kanami, "What are you doing here? Why? Why? Why? You shouldn't be here!"

Kanami is still in shock; she can't move or say anything. When she finds the strength to try to say something, Albo is then blasted by fire magic.

Viera picks up Kanami and dashes away, going for the entrance of the tower. Kanami looks back to see Albo still on the ground after the blast, struggling to get up. Kanami closes her eyes and starts to cry.

The remaining knights, Viera and Kanami, escape safely and retreat to the capital.

Viera takes Kanami to the castle and asks her to wait in a room. Kanami takes this time to think about what she saw. She felt terrible, her heart ached, but she knew that Albo wasn't the Demon Lord by choice. Her best friend, who dreamed of being a hero, wouldn't do such horrendous acts.

A maid then enters the door, she bows and tells Kanami, "the queen is asking for you, madam, please follow me."

Kanami follows the maid until they reach a cold room, they enter to see Viera with the body and head of Kos Sivongsa.

"Before we start, why didn't the figure kill you?" Viera asked in a very concerned tone.

Kanami then explains the situation, where they grew up, how they met Kos, and the journey to defeat Trilrak.

"I see you're more important than I thought. Have you used magic at all?"

Kanami, with an embarrassed look, shakes her head. Once she does, however, Viera's black eyes suddenly turn red and green as if she was a monster.

"Hm, it looks like you have an affinity for control magic."

"Control magic? I thought there were only seven types of magic."

"That's true, but those are elemental magic, there are other types of magic that aren't known to the public. There is control, projection, and many more."

"But why is that important? Even if I have an affinity for a type of magic, I can't use it without training."

Viera then puts her hand on Kanami's shoulders, "Do you wish to save your friend?"

Kanami looks up and, without hesitation, replies to Viera, "Of course I do, I will save her!"

"That's all I needed to hear."

Kanami looks at Viera, confused.

"You see, Kos was a soul magic-user. When he died, he could still decide what to do for a few moments while he was a "ghost." Looks like he unbound himself to his sword and is still a wandering soul to this day."

"Is there no afterlife?" Kanami asks, confused.

"There is, but Kos specifically made it so that he didn't go. With your control magic, we can put his soul inside you."

Kanami then backed away from Viera, shocked and scared.

"You're going to put a man inside my body? What if he does something lewd or worse, gets me killed?"

Viera looks at Kanami for a few seconds then bursts out laughing.

"Why are you laughing? This is serious."

"It sure is, but remember, he's just a soul, all you're getting are his memories and reflexes, you'll still be you. You guys won't be sharing a body."

Viera then leans to the wall and lets out a sigh, "Kos is better than me when it comes to fighting, he was just crippled and couldn't use his abilities to the max. But you're a healthy girl. If you inherit his techniques, his magic abilities, and powers, then you're set."

Kanami thinks for a moment, then looks up at Viera with a face of motivation, "If it saves Albo, I am ready for anything!"

Viera then walks towards the corpse of Kos, "Alright, let's do this, I need you to lie down on that stone table right there, I'm putting Kos next to you."

Kanami's motivation suddenly disappears, "Eh? I'm going to lie down next to a corpse?"

Viera then knocks her out with a chop on the neck and holds her so she wouldn't fall.

"She's a girl alright, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it until she was lying down."

Kanami opens her eyes. She looks around and sees nothing; she is in a black space. She tries to walk around but doesn't feel like she is going anywhere. When suddenly, a white figure waves at her from afar.

Kanami walks towards the figure to see Kos.

"Kos? How are you here?"

Kos smiles and shakes his head,

"Kid, do you not realize you're in a dream? Viera is using magic to connect our souls right now."

Kanami remembers the last thing that happened before she went dark. She jumps back in an instant.

"Eh? Does that mean I'm lying next to your headless corpse?"

"Sure thing, but we don't have much time, I need to tell you some important things."

Kanami makes a serious face, "I'm listening, Kos, how do we save Albo?"

"Once we are linked, you'll feel intense pain because your body will have to produce the mana necessary for my magic. That should be enough for the fight with Albo, but I have no idea how to save her."

Kanami bites her thumb in annoyance.

"Do you know what happened to her exactly?"

"Of course I do, although I was dead, my ghost self saw everything. Albo was cursed by Trilrak right before he died. Whoever strikes her down gets the same curse she did. Why she doesn't just let someone kill her is beyond me, though."

"She's doing it to protect everyone. If that power gets to the wrong hands, war could break out, and she also doesn't want anyone feeling the same pain as her."

"If you saw her, you would have been heartbroken."

"I already am."

"She feels intense pain every day; whenever she moves, she cries and yells due to the pain."

"But the curse shouldn't be affecting her that much."

"Kid, remember, she has holy water in her system."

"And because the curse is mixed with demonic blood, its almost as if her whole body was burning."

Kanami makes a disappointed face as she looks down.

"Listen, kid; there is nothing you could have done back then. But with you and me we can beat her, she can finally be at peace. How you deal with the aftermath is up to you, though."

"I know I'm going to confront her. Fighting her is the last thing I want."

"But if it comes to that."

"I know, I'll make sure to use your strength and knowledge. By the way, what can you do anyway?"

"I know almost every type of magic except projection."

"I see, and Viera told me you're better at sword-fighting than her."

"Kid, I let her down once, I won't let her down again, we can do this. Even if you feel the pain that she is feeling right now, we can endure it. A friend once sacrificed himself for me, its time I do the same for someone else."

"Thank you, Kos. I promise I'll call out to you. So once again, please lend me your strength!"

"Let's do this!"

Kos then vanishes right after, Kanami's body starts to ache, and she closes her eyes.

She awakens in the real world with pain all over her body, her head, her eyes, her arms, and her legs. Viera looks at her and tells her.

"I know it hurts, but it's because everything Kos knows is getting transferred to you."

Kanami yells out in pain, and her vision starts to change. Suddenly, all the metal around her is highlighted with purple and blue colors.

"That's Kos' magical eyes, he can enlarge metal, it was useful in the battlefield once, but bastard never used it again."

Kanami curls up in pain for a few more minutes. When the pain starts to fade away, she gets off the stone table she was on. Once she stands, her whole body feels faster, lighter, and more durable.

"Because your body can't normally handle the strength, I gave you some of my mana so that you won't explode."

"Thank you so much, your high- Viera."

"Don't worry about it. Did you meet Kos? How was he?"

"He just explained what his powers were, and also he mentioned something about an old friend."

"Ah, well, that's good. At least you got to say goodbye to him. I have one more thing for you."

Maids then enter the room and bring fragments of a sword.

"This is Aiea. It broke because Kos unlinked himself with the sword, but now that you're linked with him, the sword should be back to full power."

Kanami looks at the shattered sword, and an idea strikes her.

"Wait, can you turn this sword into mini daggers that I can put in my pocket?"

"Sure, why?"

"I have a creative way of using the broken blade without actually having to fix it."

A few hours pass and the mini blades that Kanami requested arrives. She puts on her anti-magic clothes given to her by the queen and her hood.

Viera looks at Kanami, worried, "Aren't you going to wear armor? You're going to need it."

"I never wore armor, so I'm going to stick with what I'm most comfortable with."

"I see, be careful out there, and don't force yourself."

Kanami puts the blades in a belt, and heads out towards the tower Albo is currently in.

"I promised you that ill be there for you until the end, and that's what I'm going to do!"

She reaches the gates and exits the capital. She then whispers to herself,

"Albo, you saved many lives. But this time, I'll save you!"