The Present According to the Future Part 2

In the midst of it all, Oscar looked back at Aurelia and smiled with the

baby, which had started crying, in his arms. "Looks like we did it."

Aurelia bowed her head, utterly astonished. "That was incredible! Let

me see your injuries."

"Heal him first," Oscar replied, hurrying over with the baby, whose back

was bleeding a little.

Aurelia quickly took the infant into her arms and intoned a healing spell.

Oscar breathed a sigh of relief as he watched.

"There, that's sorted now… but we're not done yet," he muttered. While

Oscar had gotten tangled up in a creepy forbidden curse, he still needed to

find Tinasha.

Oscar glanced toward the distant fortress. The magistrates were probably

worried, so it was best that he return to them first. Fortunately, the baby

looked to be all right. Just as he was going to tell Aurelia his plan, he sensed

someone new appear behind him.

"Oscar!" shouted a familiar voice frantically.

The word filled the king of Farsas with profound relief. He'd only just

thought to search for Tinasha, and now here she was. He turned around,

prepared to give her an earful of some kind, but froze when he saw the state

she was in. "What… what the hell happened to you?!"

"Oh, I'll be fine," Tinasha said, flapping a hand dismissively.

No matter how you looked at it, she was a mess. Her dress was ripped to

shreds in places and practically dyed red with blood. There was some sort

of inexplicable sigil emblazoned on her chest. What concerned Oscar the

most, however, was that the long hair he was so fond of had been hacked

into a bob.

He stared at the choppy, uneven ends. "What happened?"

"Oh, uh, nothing? Anyway, what went on here?" she asked.

"Do you really think that will work?" he responded dryly, walking up to

Tinasha and pinching her cheek.

"Aaahh, that hurts!" she squealed, even as she reached out to heal the

burns on his skin. Aurelia watched the pair of them, wholly slack-jawed.

Once Tinasha was released, she finally noticed Aurelia and the baby in

her arms. With her head tilted curiously, she inquired, "What's going on?"

"That baby had some leftover remnants of Simila sealed inside him,"

answered Oscar.

"He did?! O-oh, I see… I'm sorry I didn't catch that," Tinasha replied,

sounding crestfallen.

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault, and it wasn't too hard to fix,"

Oscar assured her, patting her head comfortingly. Then he turned back to

Aurelia. "Thanks. You were a huge help."

"Oh, not at all. It was my pleasure," Aurelia said politely, curtsying to

him. Then she turned anxious eyes on Tinasha.

"Aurelia's looking for the bastard. Who were you fighting with?" Oscar

asked Tinasha.

"Oh, so Travis isn't back yet? Hmm… What if he lost?" Tinasha mused.

"Do you really think I'd lose? Think before you speak," chided a

grumpy voice as the demon in question appeared behind Aurelia.

She whirled around. "Travis! Where have you been?!"

"I told you to be a good girl and wait for me. What could've possibly

brought you all the way out here?" he questioned. The gentleness in his

eyes belied his stern tone.

Aurelia rubbed her thumbs over the edges of his eyes. She hadn't seen

him in so long. "I—I was worried about you, of course! Stupid!"

"I was completely fine. Unlike her." Travis smirked.

"You know, if you had such an easy time, you could've helped,"

remarked Tinasha, crossing her arms and giving Travis a look. Her

exhaustion bled into her tone.

From that exchange, Oscar gleaned that Tinasha's opponent had not

been Travis but some common enemy of theirs instead. He decided not to

kill Travis today.

That said, he didn't intend to stop prying. Tinasha's face grew tight as

she sensed the silent pressure emanating from the man next to her.

Nervously, she glanced up at him and gave an excuse. "Umm, so basically, I

owed Travis, and he asked me to help him."

"Not getting killed because your enemy changed their mind is hardly

what I would call owing them," Oscar said sourly.

"Well, there were a lot of other things, too, you know…"

"And I'll hear all about them later," Oscar stated coolly. Tinasha looked

abashed.

She recovered soon enough, however, and looked to Travis. "So does

that mean it's all over now?"

The demon nodded. "Yeah, and I'll keep my promise. But wow, you got

beaten to a pulp. She went pretty hard on you, huh?"

"She was really strong! Ugh, I want my hair back," Tinasha huffed,

waving her arms in a fit of pique. She had already healed all her wounds,

but she couldn't restore her locks.

As she watched Tinasha struggle—and fail—to pull back the hair

tickling her face into some sort of ponytail, Aurelia bowed to her. "Um, I'm

sorry Travis pulled you into this."

"You've got it all wrong," Travis cut in. "You should be thanking her,

not apologizing. She stood in for you during that fight."

"She what?"

"Why did you have to say that?" Tinasha hissed, grimacing

uncomfortably.

Oscar patted her head. "You just had to get involved."

"Urgh…"

Aurelia's eyes grew wide. It had never occurred to her that she was the

one in danger, and she would never have guessed that this beautiful queen

had agreed to take her place.

Noticing her discomfiture, Tinasha smiled and waved to indicate it was

nothing. "You don't need to feel bad about it. Travis was the one at fault."

"I didn't do anything wrong," the demon king countered.

"You need to fix your whole lifestyle," Tinasha shot back.

"I already am," he grumbled. With a little wave of his hand, he made the

mark on Tinasha's chest disappear. At the same time, her hair grew back to

its original length. The three humans present were left stunned.

"Wow," Tinasha said.

"I'm pretty good at that stuff, you know. Let's just call it a little

recompense for battling Phaedra. Aurelia, we're leaving now," Travis stated

arrogantly. The girl looked up at him and nodded obediently.

At last, she would return home with him. Relief pulled her lips into a

smile.

Travis pressed a gentle kiss to Aurelia's forehead, and the warmth of it

filled her with deep comfort. It had always been like that, ever since she

was young. And she wanted things to stay that way forever, if possible.

Aurelia offered the demon a bittersweet smile. Feelings she was helpless

to express in words were building inside her. Perhaps that was happiness.

But right at that moment, a woman's voice muttered something.

"You… tricked me? It wasn't that woman? It was this little brat here?"

"Tinasha?!"

Tinasha clapped both hands over her mouth. Oscar stared down at her

with concern.

A voice that wasn't her own had come out of her mouth. She twisted her

body, trying to shake off the curse-like presence.

Her head throbbed terribly. It felt like it was going to crack open. An

uncomfortably warm, muddy nausea surged within her.

"You little… You planned an aftershock?!" Travis shouted with clear

panic.

Dizziness came over Tinasha. Something was crawling around inside

her body.

Suppressing her malaise, Tinasha leaped into the air and teleported

away. She reappeared in the sky far above the other three. Clutching her

throat, she rasped out, "Get out of me… You have no place here!"

On Tinasha's final word, she made the magic in her body explode. After

an impact that almost tore the young woman apart, a violent torrent of raw

power struck her.

Travis gazed up at the tiny speck in the sky that was Tinasha and cursed

under his breath. "Dammit…"

"What just happened? Has she been possessed?" demanded Oscar, an

ominous look on his face.

The demon king flung an answer back at him. "Not possessed. Phaedra

can't do anything to her. It's just the very last bits of her. Nothing that little

could seize Tinasha completely. The equilibrium of the demon realm must

have been thrown off after the loss of two of its mightiest inhabitants.

There'll be some aftershocks until things settle back to normal. That's why

some of Phaedra's consciousness is lingering."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Oscar pressed.

"Nothing. The dead can't come back to life. What Tinasha just did

probably blew away the last of Phaedra, and as for the demon realm, those

of us who remain are enough to maintain a new balance, so long as we

don't touch anything. If we'd lost any more of us, then things would be

different, but the death of two just means a temporary fluctuation in the

current of power."

Oscar frowned at that unsatisfactory explanation. "Then what are you

worried about?"

"No one can stop the disruption, even if they're short-lived. Aftershocks

will keep rolling through to try and fill the empty spots until a new

equilibrium is reached. Power is pouring into Tinasha—the one who killed

the demon. And unfortunately, no matter how high her magic tolerance

is…"

An explosion sounded overhead. An incredible mass of magic emerged.

In the center of it stood a beautiful woman.

Her long flowing black locks danced in the wind. In a voice as clear as a

bell, she laughed loudly. "Ahhhhh… ha-ha-haa! A-ha-ha-ha!"

Tinasha's shrieking howls reached the ears of the three people below.

The noise was downright unhinged and didn't resemble her usual demeanor

at all. Oscar's eyes shot wide open.

Behind him, Travis shrugged. In a blasé tone, he remarked, "Ah, she's

gone out of control."

Oscar and Aurelia had no words.

A light drizzle was falling, dampening her thin frame. Tinasha cast an

annoyed glance at the raindrops on her shoulders. It was like she was

burning on the inside. Her emotions were all muddled and chaotic; she

didn't know whether to find it funny or infuriating. Her soul threatened to

split into pieces, and she clutched at her throat.

"Ha-ha! Ha… ha-ha…"

Power was gushing forth unbidden. It poured into Tinasha ceaselessly,

as though to reforge her from the inside out.

Tinasha touched her cheek; her fingers came away wet with tears.

"Hmm?"

She had nothing to be sad about. She shouldn't have, anyway.

At present, she possessed enough heat inside her to sear away

everything around, and that was all that should've mattered.

Tinasha glared at the gloomy, overcast clouds and the incessant

precipitation. They were ruining what should have been a gorgeous view.

She snapped her fingers, and a blast of wind shot upward, sending all the

clouds flying and clearing up the sky in the blink of an eye. Soft sunlight

filtered down to earth.

"Excellent…"

Now things were a little better. She hated the cold. It made her feel like

she'd been alone in an unfamiliar place.

Roughly wiping away the tears on her cheeks, Tinasha assessed the heat

building within her. She wanted something, and she wanted it very badly,

but she couldn't determine what.

That uncertainty left her wanting to destroy everything in her path.

She shook her aching head as her gaze darted around wildly. When it

landed on the fortress of Ynureid, she scowled. "What an eyesore…"

Before she could cast a spell, someone suddenly roared at her from the

ground below.

"TINASHA!"

His voice carried well. She cocked her head like a kitten, gazing at the

man glaring at her from below.

Oscar and Aurelia were both dazed by Tinasha's ability to change the

weather without any sort of incantation.

Travis scowled. She was growing more powerful than he'd imagined. It

had reached a point that she now surpassed a forbidden curse, if only by a

little.

"What do we do?" Oscar asked.

"Well… she's getting used to her magic. It should take about half an

hour for her mind to gain control over the power. By then, the terrain

around here might look pretty different, though," Travis replied.

"We just rebuilt that fortress," Oscar said sourly.

"So? Tell that to your lady," Travis retorted.

This was all too ridiculous. Oscar massaged his temples. Behind him,

Aurelia had gone pale as she clutched the baby to her.

Travis patted her shoulder. "We'd better find some shelter. Wanna head

back?"

"Hold on just a minute! Can't you do something to stop this?!" she

cried.

"Not possible," Travis answered flatly. "Normally, she's about as strong

as I am, but I could always handle her. Now, though? No way. I can't do a

thing. Besides, children of the spirits—spirit sorcerers, that is—get the best

of everything in this world. Letting her be is the best course of action."

Aurelia frowned at her guardian. "Come on. You sound like a coward."

"I just don't make a habit of overestimating my own abilities. I do what

I can and nothing more. Killing Tinasha's about the only way of stopping

her."

"Absolutely not!" Aurelia cried.

"Thought so," Travis responded, throwing his hands up theatrically.

Oscar threw him a stony glance, observing how this beautiful man

seemed to be enjoying this somehow. He unsheathed Akashia again. "Then

I'll do it."

"Are you out of your mind? Sure, Akashia can beat her, but getting too

full of yourself's only gonna get you killed," said Travis.

"There's a way to restore her. Besides, I'd rather not rebuild that fortress

for a second time. I'm going to get close to her, and you're going to help

me," Oscar stated in a tone brooking no refusal.

Travis's lip curled scornfully, and Aurelia poked him in the back. At that,

the demon nodded. "Fine. Do you mean get close to her physically?"

"Pretty sure I don't need any help getting close to her emotionally,"

Oscar shot back, and Travis burst out laughing.

While these two men were not on good terms by any stretch of the

imagination, they worked out a simple order of operations and then set out

to subdue the woman lingering in the skies.

Tilting her head to one side, Tinasha observed the man down on the ground.

Irritation flashed in her dark eyes. "Who are you? Stop bothering me."

That cut Oscar deep. Keeping his eyes focused straight ahead, he asked

Travis, "Has she lost her memories?"

"It's more likely they're all temporarily jumbled," the demon answered.

"Phaedra's consciousness may be gone, but her emotions are probably still

there. She really, really hated mortals. If you make one wrong move, you'll

wind up in the ground."

"No way am I gonna let that go unchecked. That's my fiancée up there,"

Oscar muttered. With his off hand, he gestured to Tinasha to come toward

him. "Tinasha, I need to talk to you! Come down here."

"No. Go away."

"…"

Oscar smiled grimly at her immediate refusal. Her loathing for him was

written all over her face; the dead demon queen's feelings truly were

influencing Tinasha.

After a moment's thought, Oscar looked back up at her. "Come down

here if you hate me so much. I'll fight you."

Tinasha's eyes grew wide upon being provoked so openly. She looked

shocked and hurt, but only for a second. Then there was only anger. She

leveled a finger at him. "Die then."

Five orbs of light shot from her digit, snaking through the air toward

Oscar. He broke into a run and slashed with Akashia, cutting the first two

magic spheres apart. Without spells to hold them together, the luminous

globes dispersed.

The third and fourth orbs, racing at him from behind, exploded as soon

as they touched Akashia.

Behind Oscar, Travis crossed his arms and smirked. "I'm getting tired of

this. Just come down."

As Akashia cleaved through the final orb, an enormous pressure bore

down on Tinasha from above.

"Hey!"

She crumpled in the face of the sudden attack, plummeting to the earth.

However, before she collided with the surface, a colossal explosion

boomed. A tremendous blast of air swept over the area.

Travis threw up a barrier to ward off the kicked-up dirt, and he sighed.

"Come on, now. I just want to go home."

Tinasha glowered at him crossly while floating a little off the ground.

That surprise attack had garnered her wrath. Oscar had never seen her dark

eyes so filled with pure hatred. "So there's two of you… I see."

The woman was seething with fury, her emotions on the verge of

burning anyone who so much as touched her. Still, Oscar stepped in closer

to her. He touched the ring finger on his left hand, just to make sure.

"Strictly speaking, I'm the one responsible for all this. Come here, and I'll

get that poison out of you."

"I hate you," she replied, lifting a hand. A gigantic wall of compressed

magic appeared in front of her. The white edifice was as thick as a real

stone one and as tall as a castle rampart.

The other side of it was just transparent enough to reveal that it was

knotted together with a roiling mass of dense, concentrated magical power.

"Go."

The wall moved toward Oscar, plowing through the ground and sending

dirt flying in all directions. He set off at a run, sword in hand.

As the colossal, intricate mass of magic pressed in on him, Oscar swung

Akashia down at it. The mighty wall capable of toppling everything it

touched developed a giant crack.

Oscar slipped through that crevice and hurried closer. Tinasha frowned

and snapped her fingers. A scalding flash of light formed behind Oscar. It

pressed into his back, giving off sparks.

But without even looking behind him, Oscar sliced it to shreds. Embers

flew off and landed on his arms, but the barrier Tinasha herself had placed

on Oscar kept him safe.

The fluctuation in magic reverberated through her body, making her jolt.

"AHH!"

"Come back to yourself, Tinasha."

"Y-you shut up!" she snapped resentfully. She cast a teleportation spell

to escape up into the sky. However, Oscar had anticipated that and touched

the ring on his left hand. The warp-blocking spell activated. Travis, who

had finished eliminating the rest of the wall, whistled from behind.

Tinasha's eyes grew wide with astonishment before her face darkened

with animosity. A huge amount of magic formed between her hands—a

radiant golden orb. Tinasha carried it up into the air and hurled it down at

Oscar. Realizing it was big enough to blow a crater in the earth, he stopped

where he was and readjusted his grip on Akashia.

"GO AWAY FOREVER!"

The air crackled and sizzled. Oscar held the flat of his blade up against

the radiant sphere. Akashia only held it in place for a second before splitting

it in two.

By that point, however, Tinasha had conjured a black sword. The

blinding orb had been a decoy, and she plunged at Oscar from above.

Akashia easily repelled the incoming blade and dispelled it, though. Oscar

caught hold of Tinasha's wrist and pulled her in; her face turned to a look of

startled dismay.

Despite being presented with such a clear opening, Oscar hesitated for a

fraction too long. Seizing her chance, Tinasha focused her gaze as she

kicked him in the shoulder. She moved far back, riding the wave of a small

burst of power.

Sighing as he looked down at the hand she had knocked away, Oscar

heard Travis say, "You could've stabbed her in the stomach."

"If I did that, her guts would burst open," Oscar pointed out.

"So? Just do it. I'll heal them up later."

"But it'll still hurt like hell."

When Travis had blown a hole in Tinasha's abdomen, she'd writhed in

agony even after restoring herself. Oscar didn't want to put Tinasha through

that, nor did he want to jeopardize her ability to have children by forcing

her to reconstitute her body tissue repeatedly.

A scream rent the air as the two men bickered.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The queen was caught in a fit of rage, tearing madly at her hair. A wild

cry erupted from her tiny, battered frame. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate

you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

She was like a child throwing a temper tantrum, though her screams

were more heartbroken.

"I hate you! I'm sick of looking at you! Die! Die already, you liar! I hate

you! I hate you! I hate you!" she cried, cradling her head in her hands as she

burned with enmity.

Coldly eyeing the queen going insane from an over-infusion of pure

magic, Travis said, "Phaedra's emotions are really doing her in. All we can

do is beat her into submission and wait for it to subside."

"No," Oscar said.

What Travis suggested wasn't impossible. While Tinasha had all the

power of a full-scale calamity, she wasn't in her right mind at present.

Oscar and the demon could subdue her.

That didn't feel like the right way to go about it, however.

Oscar gazed at her tearstained face. When his eyes met her dark ones, he

made up his mind. "It will be all right."

Akashia in hand, he stepped forward.

Tinasha shivered when she saw the weapon. She held her hands out in

front of her to stop him from taking another step and started to pour magic

into the space between them.

"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

"Why do you hate me? Because I'm a mortal?" he asked.

"I hate you. You're a liar. I despise you."

"Well, I can't deny that I've lied to you," he admitted.

The muddled state of her emotions made it hard to tell where the demon

ended and Tinasha began.

Bitterly, she shook her head. White light emerged from her hands,

glowing brighter and brighter.

Pure, raw magic—enough power to wipe out thousands in an instant.

From behind, Travis piped up, "Watch out. You take that hit, and this

whole region gets decimated."

Oscar didn't answer and instead kept his eyes trained on the woman

before him as he moved nearer.

As destructive radiance spilled from Tinasha's hands, she turned a

nervous gaze on him and snapped, "You didn't even want me. You're going

to leave me."

"I'm not. I'm yours."

"I hate you," she said after a pause. A simple spell appeared between her

palms. It possessed more than enough strength to annihilate a lowly mortal.

All it would take was a thought. Scowling hatefully, Tinasha completed the

spell.

A feverish, crazed look crossed Tinasha's face.

"Love me."

Seven rings flared into being. The pressure emanating from them was

similar to Druza's forbidden curse, but more intense.

The massive spell flew from her hands, hurtling toward Oscar. He only

felt a minor flash of worry as he leaped directly into the path of the attack,

however. With a sharp exhale, he dug Akashia's blade into the interlocking

spells.

Light exploded with such intensity that Oscar momentarily lost his sight.

Still, he cut away the spells on the outer edges as pressure seared into

him. The hand gripping Akashia went numb. He was robbed of all sense of

gravity. However, he continued undaunted, instinctually hacking away the

sheer force pressing down on his body.

As he breathed out all the air in his lungs, he found himself standing

before her. Gazing down at Tinasha, her face streaked with tears, Oscar

smiled. "Is that what you've been worried about?"

Was that an emotion belonging to the dead demon woman? Or was it a

wish Tinasha herself had kept hidden?

Either way, she was here with him now.

He cupped her face in both hands. "Tinasha, I adore you. You don't need

to worry about that."

Her teary eyes widened a fraction. Gently, he lay the flat of Akashia

against her ivory cheek. From that point of contact outward, magic diffused

away.

As her breathing slowly calmed, Oscar pressed a kiss to the bridge of

her nose and murmured, "Do you want me to feed it to you? Can you drink

it yourself?"

Tinasha's long eyelashes fluttered. Her deathly pale cheeks turned a

faint pink. "I'll drink it myself."

She held out a hand, and Oscar smiled tightly as he pulled a vial from

his pocket and passed it to her. It contained water from the underground

Lake of Silence located beneath Farsas Castle. Drawn from the pool that

had created the royal sword, the water could neutralize magic.

Tinasha drained it in one gulp. When she fainted, Oscar took her in his

arms. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Travis waving at them in the

distance.