Chapter 27: The Child of Light

Tina looked at the boy in awe,

"Cú Chulainn. The Irish hero?"

"Do you know any other Cú Chulainn, little miss?" the boy replied with a raised eyebrow.

Tina simply looked at the boy,

"Wha... Ho... What? Last time I checked, you are an adult and where is Isaiah? What did you do to him?" Tina began to ask questions in rapid-fire.

The Irish hero understood her rising panic. It's not every day a legend comes to life and possesses your teammate, unfortunately, he didn't have time to deal with it.

"Look here, little miss. We don' much time. Because it seems I have a bloody demon to kill and a portal to close if you haven' noticed. So-"

Before the hero could finish his sentence, he felt a rise in magic power. Without looking back, he swung his spear behind and deflected a demonic bullet which crashed into the ground next to the duo. Cú Chulainn turned back and glared at the demon with an annoyed expression.

"Can't you wait? I'm in the middle of somethin'. I'll deal with you later." The Irish hero snapped at the demon.

The latter was too stunned to speak at the reply. The hero turned back and flashed a smile at the woman,

"As I was saying, I need you to get back a little. Since it's goin' to get wild a little." Setanta said and gave a cocky grin.

"Bu-" "Apapapa. Go." Tina was about to protest, but the boy interrupted her.

Tina didn't know what to do, but she relented and decided to retreat and help Wong who was not looking good. Now was not the time to ask questions since it looks like he was on the brink of exhaustion. Isaiah/Chú Chulainn watched the woman run to Wong when the demon had enough.

"You dare mock me!?" the demon snarled as he prepared another large attack and was about to launch it on the two adults when he heard a shout,

"Ansuz!"

The demon looked towards the source of the voice only to see a large fireball making its way towards him. Widening his eyes in surprise, the demon quickly cancelled his attack and dodged the ball of fire. He looked at the source of the attack and saw the boy in the blue bodysuit pointing at him with the end of his index glowing blue.

"Oi! Your' fight's with me, buddy!" the latter said.

The demon snarled. He gave a glance at the portal,

'The portal will soon open. In the meantime, I simply have to kill these pests.'

He looked back at the boy and frowned. The atmosphere around the latter had changed. He didn't know what happen to the runt. One moment he was in his demonic chains unable to do anything and, the next second, there was a blinding flash of light and the boy was in front of the woman that he had attacked. The demon saw the weapon in the boy's hand and almost recoiled from the sheer killing intent it was emitting. He had only felt this kind of ominous feeling from high-ranking demons. However, that was not the only thing that it was emitting, it seems the spear itself was alive and ready to tear him apart.

Cú Chulainn saw the demon eyeing his spear and his smirk grew.

"Don' like my spear, don' ye, eh?"

He shrugged,

"It's normal. 'Twas made for yer kind. And it seems like she's real eager," the hero explained.

His enemy then displayed a cocky smirk,

"You think a costume and a pretty weapon can change anything!?"

He spread his arms and cackled loudly,

"Hell will soon descend upon Earth and there is nothing you can do to stop it! So stop getting in my way and accept your puny death!" the demon roared as flames began to gather upon his palms.

The Child of Light gripped his spear and crouched in a combat stance.

"Ye see, that's the problem with my kind. We're just a stubborn bunch of fools who don' know how how to accept death." the boy quipped before dodging to the side effectively avoiding the twin flame attack. At this point, Stonehenge was already in ruins from the battle.

"Oi, you two!" Setanta called to the two sorcerers.

Wong and Tina, who had hastily erected shields to protect themselves from the fire, looked at him when he called.

"Go back to the Sanctum and brin' this lad's teacher!"

"What about you!?" Tina shouted,

"Don' worry about me! I can handle this, little miss!" the boy replied while dodging another fire attack.

Tina gritted her teeth as she knew he was right. She and Wong we're on their last legs. Not only did they have to battle more than a hundred cultists, but now they had to fight a demon well beyond their capabilities as well as close a portal leading to the fiery pits of Hell.

"GO!" the hero shouted once more.

"Fuck! Let's go, Wong!" Tina cursed and the latter opened a portal.

The Asian man also had a frustrated expression due to his weakness. Tina ran inside the portal and Wong looked back to Isaiah/Cú Chulainn.

"Hey!"

The boy looked at him,

"Whoever you are. keep Isaiah safe."

The Irish hero smirked,

"No worries, mate. 'm not plannin' on dyin' today."

Wong nodded before going through the portal and closing it. Now it was only the boy and the demon as well as the increasingly growing portal.

"Finally, We're alone." the boy said.

"Why did you let your comrades retreat? You would have a better chance at stopping this than you alone."

"That's the thin'," The boy in blue gripped his spear and rapidly twirled it around him before finishing and entering a combat stance with the spear pointing down as well as his knees bent ready to jump into action, " They don'. I alone am enough for you."

He could see the demon's face twisting as rage became apparent on his face.

"You arrogant little pest! I will enjoy killing you!"

the boy smirked and felt his mana reserves,

'I best finish this quick since the lad can't handle the power yet.' he thought.

"Before that, let me get you down first." Cú Chulainn told the demon as he jumped on a fallen Stonehenge rock.

"Wha-" before the being of Hell could even question what the boy meant, the boy disappeared from sight leaving a crater at his last position and reappeared in front of him.

The demon couldn't utter a word as the boy slashed his chest with the spear leaving a huge gash.

"AARGH!"

With the attack, the demon was sent to the ground at a frightening speed.

*BOOOOM!*

Dust and dirt rose into the air as the earth tremble from the impact. The hero then landed on a rock as he looked at the point of impact. He slashed his spear into the smoke to disperse it and saw the demon rising from the ground. Cú Chulainn could see the wound bleeding profusely from the latter as he finally stood on his two feet. The demonic being looked at his chest and had an alarmed expression.

"Wha-What did you do!? Why is my wound not healing!?" the demon shouted as he clutched his chest trying to stop the bleeding.

Cú Chulainn looked at the demon with contempt,

"This spear has a curse that makes the wound unable to be healed unless the spear is destroyed. Perfect for yer filthy kind."

The demon gritted and roared as he threw his hands in front and crimson energy started to bubble before them.

"DIE!"

The twin attack was then shot at the boy. With a nonchalant look, the latter brought his spear forward and started twirling it creating a makeshift shield. As soon as the attack landed on the boy's makeshift shield, they were easily dissipated due to the anti-demonic properties of Gáe Bolg. Seeing his attack so easily blocked, the demon didn't relent. He started to shoot his attacks recklessly at the boy without considering the surroundings, however, the Child of Light stood firm as he simply let the attack crash onto his "shield". After a minute of the demon's barrage attack, it finally stopped.

Cú Chulainn could see the demon now panting as he started to get tired from the fight and his injuries. The blood was still flowing out of the wound on his chest. He glanced at the portal and felt that the spell was almost complete. He then felt stinging pain coming from different parts of his body. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at his arm where one of the sources of the pain was when he saw a blue glowing crack in Isaiah's skin. Some blood started to flow out of it. He noticed the same thing happening, in other parts of the boy's body. He released a sigh.

'I guess it's time to finish this, at? I need to leave enough mana for the boy to close the portal,' he thought.

Cú Chulainn bent his knees and channelled his mana and burst forward.

*BOOM!*

With Gae Bolg's blade pointed forward ready to be used, the hero could see the demon's face of despair at the sight of the weapon.

"NO-WAIT! PLEAS-"

Before the hellspawn could even finish his word, Cú Chulainn thrust his right into his heart.

"ACK!"

The demonic being saw the spear lodged into his heart and slowly looked up at the boy's red eyes. He could almost feel a bestial aura around the child ready to rip him apart. Without a single word, he slumped backwards as the boy retrieved the mythical weapon with a loud squelch and a disappointed look.

"Tch! T'was not satisfying at all. This hellspawn was not even worth the fight!" he let out as he eyed the corpse.

Leaving the corpse alone, Cú Chulainn looked at the portal above. He was about to do something when he felt another bout of pain and gritted his teeth.

"Alright lad. It's yer turn since you have those bloody eyes of yours. Besides I can't stay much longer."

Cú Chulainn then closed his eyes. At that moment, his blue bodysuit, as well as his weapon, disappeared into blue motes before being replaced with Isaiah's worn and torn black sorcerer's combat suit. His hair turned black and his eyes turned to a familiar blue. Isaiah was now back. The eleven-year-old opened his eyes and, as soon as he did, collapsed to his knees.

"AAAHHRGH!" the boy could only shout as an intense burning sensation suddenly started rampaging in his body.

Isaiah felt as if he went bathing in lava along with knives twisting inside of him. Unseen by him, his mana circuits were flickering on and off on his body. With pure willpower, he opened his eyes once more and looked at the portal. He could see that the spell was almost complete and could almost make out the other side of the portal.

'I don't have much time! I have to cut the connection!' he thought whilst trying to ignore the pain.

With his Mystic Eyes, he looked at the portal and could see a line connecting Earth and Hell. He pushed himself up even if each limb felt heavier than lead and every movement lead to another burst of pain. The portal was high in the sky and there was no way to reach it from the ground. Looking around, he saw the carnage that destroyed the Stonehenge monument. But that was not Isaiah's focus, he tried to find a way to reach the sky when suddenly he found it. He painfully walked up to the stone that had the highest reach.

"I... have to... reach it" the boy muttered as he prepared to climb the rock.

Suddenly, a hand was placed on his shoulder. Sensing the touch, he quickly turned around and punched whatever it was.

*PAH!*

Whatever it was had blocked the child's attack. Isaiah's vision cleared and saw the worried face of the Ancient One and his fist in her palm.

"Tea...cher?"

Due to the immense pain, he was in, he didn't sense the opening of a portal nor his teacher. The woman looked at the child covered in blood and injuries and felt her heart being torn at the horrible sight.

"It's me, Isaiah. It's me. I'm here now." she said as she gently hugged the child. "You're safe now."

"The... portal."

"It's okay. Leave it to me. I will stop it using the time stone."

Hearing her solution, Isaiah shook his head,

"N-No. It's... too dangerous. You said... it would break... the laws of the universe."

Fiona had a strained smile hearing her disciple,

"I'm glad you remembered your lessons, but we have no choice. The portal spell is irreversible and the only other solution is to let it pass and we defend earth from the invasion, but that's a no-go," she explained as Tina and Wong appeared through their portal.

"But I... can stop it. With... my eyes-Ngh!" the boy said and another bout of pain flared.

"Isaiah! You're too injured! Let me handle it!" Fiona quickly said as she saw the child groan.

"No, teacher! I... can cut... the connection between Hell... and Earth."

The Ancient One looked at the child who was about to pass out. She narrowed her eyes,

"Fine! What do you need to do?"

"Bring me... to the portal," Isaiah replied as he pointed at the destination which was now around ten meters in the air.

"Alright."

The teacher tried to carefully pick up the child using (Telekinesis), but the latter let out whimpers of pain which further tore through the woman's heart. Normal children shouldn't be experiencing pain like this.

'Unfortunately, Isaiah Sharpe was no normal child."

She then carefully lifted the boy in the air and towards the portal. Isaiah could see the portal getting bigger as he grew closer. It was now more than fifteen meters in diameter and the other side was starting to get clearer. He heard grunts and snarls on the other side of the portal as well as see several silhouettes of different shapes.

'Demons." Isaiah thought as he observed the other side.

"Stop!" Isaiah shouted and the Ancient One obeyed.

He took a painful deep breath and recited his trigger aria,

'Root, Shine.'

As soon as he activated his magic circuits, pain erupted within his body once more. If before it was like bathing in lava, now it was like he was bathing in it and drinking it at the same time. He felt his body burning up due to the overuse of the magic circuits. His eyes felt like they were either about to pop out or melt, he couldn't figure it out. With the little amount of will left, he cast his spell.

'Projection.'

Turquoise arcane energy crackled above his palm and coalesced into a dagger. The construct was now complete, he looked at the portal and located the line. It was a small line, just about ten to fifteen centimetres and was placed right in front of the portal. In Isaiah's vision, that same line represented Hell's tether to Earth. He quickly cut it. As soon as he did, the portal started to distort. He heard multiple cries of outrage and surprise on the other side of the portal.

"Isaiah! We have to close the portal! It has now become unstable to the loss of connection! If we don't do anything, it will become a singularity!" the Ancient One shouted to the boy.

A large dome of Eldritch Magic was created by Tina and Wong to contain the situation while she was about to pull the boy back down when the boy shouted to her.

'Did I make a mistake? That can't be right?' the boy thought as he looked at the portal in front of him. He then felt his teacher's power pulling him back to the ground.

"Wait, Teacher! I... need to cut another line!"

The woman grimaced and listened to him. Isaiah quickly tried to locate the line of Death he needed. Unfortunately, it was not around the portal. The situation was getting more and more serious as the unstable portal started to twist in itself. Signs of the formation of the black hole started to appear. The wind started to pick up as the energy in the area started to fluctuate drastically. Isaiah looked around when he finally found it.

"There! Take me there, Teacher!" Isaiah pointed at the center of where Stonehenge used to be. It was the origin point of the spell used by the demon to open the portal. The line Isaiah had cut previous was simply the anchor of the realms. He hadn't stopped the spell in itself. His teacher's power flew him to his destination where he quickly cut the line. As soon as he did, the unstable portal stopped fluctuating. The four sorcerers held their breath as they observed the portal in the sky. Suddenly, they tensed once more when the gateway to hell started to twist in itself once more. It started to shrink in itself until it disappeared leaving nothing but the dark night of the English winter as well as the carnage previously known as Stonehenge. All four sorcerers let out a sigh of relief when the fight was finally over.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, Isaiah started screaming as cracks started forming all over his body letting out a massive amount of blood spurting out of them. The young sorcerer then collapsed to the floor as the last bit of consciousness faded away.

'ISAIAH!" the three adults shouted seeing the boy collapse.

The Ancient One practically teleported in front of the boy. She tried to touch him, but his body was hot to touch. Too hot. She could practically see the steam coming out of the boy. But that didn't matter to her, she grabbed Isaiah and pointed her index to the air in front of her, a portal formed in less than half a second and she arrived in Kamar-Taj's infirmary with Tina and Wong right behind her. The two adults had never seen the Ancient One's expression like this. Usually, she was a composed woman who was all-knowing due to the amount of knowledge and experience she had accumulated during her more than seven hundred years of life. However, now they could see a rare mixture of worry and panic as well as anger on her. It reminded the two sorcerers that although she was the Sorcerer Supreme and that she had lived more than seven hundred years, she was still a human capable of emotions and it seemed like the young boy in front of them had brought them out.

Fiona Barran quickly found a bed and placed the unconscious boy on it. She then turned to Tina and Wong,

"Return to your quarters and do not speak about today's events until I call for you for briefing," she said in a voice that let no arguments.

"Yes, Master!" they bother said and quickly left the infirmary.

Fiona looked at the boy and nodded. Making a hand sign, she crossed them in front of the amulet she was wearing. The Eye of Agomotto opened up revealing the glowing green Time Stone inside. She placed her hand in front of her and towards the boy and activated a spell. Green magic circles flared to life in front of her palms and around her wrist. The spell now activates, she turned her hand counter-clockwise. The injuries that Isaiah suffered started to heal. Or more specifically, his body time started to reverse. A minute later, all the injuries on the boy's body were healed. Fiona was about to sigh in relief when she noticed something wrong. Isaiah was still panting and his body temperature started to rise once more.

"What? What's happening? Didn't I heal his injuries?" she said out loud.

She then noticed flickers of turquoise on the boy's skin. The woman took off the boy's combat suit and shirt and saw that, all over his body, turquoise circuit-like lines flickered on and off.

"His magic circuits! Is this the cause of the temperature rise? That's right! Since his magic circuits are located in his soul, they can't be touched by the Time Stone. Only the Soul Stone can interact with souls. What should I do?"

The woman opened her palms once more and she spread her arms apart. A large formation appeared in the room. She then applied it to the room's floor as a one-time use formation. WIth the formation was complete, she activated it. Cold air started to emit from the formation. Adjusting the temperature, she let it be. This formation was a formation she created a long time ago to draw the cold energy from Ikhtalon therefore she didn't need to continuously pull on the demon's energy herself. Since Isaiah's body was burning up, she figured cool air would help. She then went to inspect the boy's magic circuit by looking at his soul.

As she observed the circuits she noticed the problem. Magic circuits were pseudo-nerve-like circuits in Isaiah's body that had two jobs: to convert life force into mana and store it ready to be used. Unfortunately, Isaiah's life force was so low, that the circuits had trouble converting it into mana, therefore, putting the boy's life in danger once more. There was also the fact that they were overused resulting in the overheating of Isaiah's body

'Just what happened in the mission?'

She placed her hand on the child's chest and her hand started to glow a bright yellow. As the Sorcerer Supreme, she has knowledge of multiple schools of magic. That includes the art of chi manipulation. Chi was just another word for life force. Although normal humans have enough chi to simply live their life. People who trained in martial arts have a larger quantity of chi. Expert martial artists will have the capacity to manipulate their life force which grants them a faster recovery rate or the capacity to retain their youth as well as their energy. Fiona was no exception. What she was doing was a simple application of chi manipulation: Chi transference.

As she transferred some of her chi to Isaiah, to her surprise, the chi was easily accepted by the magic circuits of the boy. Usually, when transferring chi, there was always a small rejection from the body of the person that was receiving the chi since it was not their own making an amount of chi wasted. That was not the case with Isaiah. His body readily accepted her chi. His breathing started to stabilize as the flickering of the circuits stopped. After transferring a sizeable amount of chi to the boy, she stopped. If it were anyone else, it would have been dangerous. Fortunately or unfortunately, it depended on the point of view, that Fiona was connected to the Dark Dimension which granted her immortality.

She let out a breath of relief when she finally saw Isaiah's breathing had become stable. His body was still hot, but it had gotten cooler than when they first arrived in the infirmary.

The woman conjured a chair and sat down before staring at the child with a mix of different emotions that she thought she had forgotten. Placing a hand on the sleeping boy's cheek, she gently stroked it.

"You poor child. You shouldn't have experienced pain like this. Then again, you shouldn't have lost your family nor fallen into a three-year coma or even fight with your life on the line. No child should experience life like yours. Then again, if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to learn the magic that you love so much, and you wouldn't have met all these people or met the friends you have now. You wouldn't have appeared in my life." Fiona didn't know, but her eyes started to brim a little. "I should blame myself for bringing you into this side of the world, don't I? I didn't even give you a choice when you woke from that coma. Seeing your capacity to wield mana, I simply thought that learning magic was your only path. You were just a lost boy who had everything taken away and, in that moment of vulnerability, I took advantage of you. I'm sorry, Isaiah. I'm truly sorry for taking away your childhood." the woman said as a trail of tears ran down her right cheek.

She quickly conjured a tissue, wiped her tear and dismissed it. She then got off the chair.

"I better let you rest for now," she said as she gently rubbed the boy's hair. "Good night, Isaiah Sharpe."

Fiona then left the room without ever noticing the boy's finger slightly twitching.