61. A monster among Heroes?

A Fury. The word echoed in my mind. Its sound didn’t bode well.

Ray clenched his fists.

“As I say, I may be mistaken. And even if I’m not, you don’t need to be frightened or anything. My dad told me how to proceed if you were to become a Fury, so it’s all right. Things like that are not that uncommon.”

“… Sure.”

“Some necromancers advise against telling the familiar about those things, but I thought you would be more relaxed if you knew.”

Was I? I couldn’t tell. I smiled.

“Sure.”

“So you don’t need to worry.”

My smile stiffened.

“Keep saying that, and you’ll make me worry for real.”

“Ah… Yeah. Sorry.”

I leaned on the window ledge with my arms folded.

“You did told me about the Fury thing but… I thought Furies couldn’t think straight. Arkill told me.”

“… What did he tell you?”

“Mm… If I recall correctly, he said a Fury’s core has no balance, Furies always want to eat more, and their mind stops working. But mine works just fine… well, as usual, at least. Could it be I am a special Fury?”

“… You’re not. You can think straight because I’ve put a barrier in your core. It’s just temporal, though. Once you start eating, it will crumble quickly, and I’ll have to build it again. It’s all I can do for now. A Fury state can last from two weeks up to several months. It varies a lot, the average being one month, so… we’ll have to bear it until it ends.”

“Yeah… So a Fury can come back to normal?”

“It… can’t. Not the way you were.”

“Then Arkill—”

“—Is not a Fury. Listen, actually, all undeads have to live through a ‘fury’ period before they become full-fledged, it’s like a transition to adulthood. Usually, you can see some signs before it happens; so, the necromancer can take it under control and ‘simulate’ the fury period.”

“Simulate?”

“To produce a similar Fury condition without actually doing it. Because of Kaspar’s intervention, I was expecting your core to grow sooner than normal but… Cesarine’s lifeforce triggered a massive growth spurt way too soon, and it disrupted your core. And that’s really b… unfortunate.” He almost said ‘bad’, didn’t he? He cleared his throat. “That means I can’t simulate a ‘fury period’ for you anymore because you turned into a real Fury. Probably.”

“How probable?”

“Well… Forget the ‘probably’: I’m sure of it. But it’s not like that situation caught me completely off guard. It will be a bit more difficult and laborious than the controlled transformation, that’s all.”

Ray’s efforts not to make me worry were praiseworthy. I shook my head.

“But, Ray, there’s something I don’t understand. Undead people have a master. Then, all the master has to do is to order the familiar to eat the bare minimum, am I right?”

“You’re… dead wrong.” Ray sat down on his chair, laying a hand on each knee. “I had to learn so many things during those two months that… I guess I’ve neglected you a bit. I should explain to you a few things about the undead. Can you bear with it for a few minutes?”

I smiled, went to my knees like a good student, and said:

“I don’t promise that I’ll remember everything, my memory is full of holes, but I’m all ears.”

Ray gave a nod.

“Then… First, not all the undead have a human master. There are natural undead, created by other entities that are not human, like necro-trees, necro-mist, even necro-soil—”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah. Most Heroes may deny it, but deathforce is a natural energy made of dark crystal. Necromancers didn’t invent it. They did invent techniques to use it, though, throughout the centuries, and that’s how artificial cores were created. However,” he went on, “undeads with natural masters and undeads with human masters have something in common. Their cores can’t work without a necro-bond. That is, the undead can’t live without a master. At least, it hasn’t been proven otherwise so far.”

I nodded. I had guessed as much.

“So? What about the Furies?” I asked. “Can natural undead become Furies?”

“Obviously, they can. Most Furies in the world are natural undead. Though natural Furies don’t live long, since their ‘masters’ are not even aware of their existence.”

“… That’s… sad.”

“Yeah. But think that those undeads normally are barely sentient too. They are mostly small creatures, worms, and the like.”

I wondered what a worm turned into a Fury looked like.

“Then?” I said. “What about Furies with a human master?”

“Well… The name speaks for itself. It’s said the necromancer has absolute control over his familiars… except when they become Furies.”

My eyes grew open.

“Then… you can’t order me right now?”

“I could. An undead has to obey its master’s orders, there’s no way out, but ordering a Fury is a bad idea. You see, an order always stirs up the core, and if that happens, your life-lust would increase. Worse, the master cannot erase an order given to a Fury. Giving a counter-order would only worsen your life-lust, so the only solution is to wait for the order to fade away on its own. So, this is the situation: if I ordered you to stop eating someone’s lifeforce, you would get mad and feed on someone else; if I ordered you to just stop eating, you would get mad at yourself; if I were to put you to sleep, your core would die from hunger… Are you listening, Armen?”

“Eeeh, I-I am…” No, I wasn’t: I had just caught another streak of Ray’s lifeforce and had lost concentration. It wasn’t entirely my fault. Ray was talking a lot, and his wasted lifeforce was filling the room.

Ray cleared his throat.

“Simply put, the more I order you, the more desperate you get.”

“Oh…” I forced a smile. That… sounded bad. “I think I got it. But how can you know I would react that way?”

“It’s how it works. Many necromancers had to deal with familiars who turned into Furies, and many made the same mistake, ordering them and thinking they were doing the right thing, when in fact they were just digging the grave for their familiars. The personality or will of the Fury hardly makes a difference when its life-lust is at its peak. They all react the same way. So… our main objective, for now, is to keep your life-lust in check.”

I nodded. There was a brief silence. Then I asked:

“Say, Ray… when you say that they all react the same way… what exactly does that mean?”

“It means you will eat lifeforce until you’re satiated. But the thing is, a Fury can’t be satiated with just a few thousand drops of lifeforce. Since Furies are growing creatures, they need an amount much greater than that.”

“How much?”

“About two million drops a day.”

I froze. Two million?

“That’s a lot, right?”

“You could say that. That’s about twice the quantity contained in a grown-up human body. Also, Furies usually won’t stop even if they are satiated, because of the intense pleasure they take in feeding on living beings. So, listen—Crap, did I just make it an order?!”

“You didn’t,” I assured him.

Ray snorted in relief.

“So, what I was going to say is, once the Heavenly Storm lifeforce is completely eliminated in your deathforce veins and your core, about three days from now, you should start eating larger quantities of lifeforce, or else it would be pretty bad for your health. But you can’t be caught, and you’ll have to be by my side whenever you eat large quantities so I can rebuild the mental barrier that prevent you from losing control. You can’t eat just by breathing. You won’t have enough if you do. Also…” He hesitated. “No. It’s nothing.” He stood up. “I just remembered my dad gave me some equipment, just in case. I told him I’d never use it but…”

He searched his bag and took out a mask. It was black, with the picture of a big skeleton smile embroidered on it.

“Agh… Sorry my Dad chose such a creepy design…”

Ray stopped one meter away from me, wavered, and explained:

“This mask is impermeable to lifeforce. You won’t be able to renew the air in your lungs, but since you don’t need oxygen, it’s not a problem for you. You will be able to talk just fine. Ah, but of course, you don’t have to put it on if you think you won’t need it.”

As he said all that, a streak of lifeforce denser than the others reached me. My mouth opened instinctively… I shut it, then held out my hand with a tense smile.

“I’ll take it.”

I was grabbing the mask when I heard a squeaking, then a loud bang. I turned to the door, startled.

The panel had just knocked over the armchair that Ray had probably placed there to block the way during my treatment. The door was now ajar, and Zeeta was peeping into the room. His eyes lit up.

“Straw Head! You’re okay!”

To my bewilderment, Ray lunged forward, leaped over the armchair, pushed Zeeta out of the room, and disappeared with him in the corridor. I heard him growl:

“What’s the big idea! You can’t barge in like that!”

“I thought you had locked the door.”

“There’s no lock!”

“How’s the Straw Head?”

“He’s okay.”

“What happened to him?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Oh, yeah? Want me to beat you up?”

“You’d better not try, Zeeta,” I said, more harshly than I intended. With the mask on, I peeped out of the room. Zeeta raised an eyebrow at my weird mask.

“Straw Head? Are you really okay?”

“Yeah.”

His face brightened up. He hurried to the door.

“Then—!”

Was he going to grab my arm or something? I panicked and slammed the door in his face. I couldn’t hear what he said until I reopened it a bit, just an inch to let the sound pass.

“… The hell was that for?” Zeeta complained.

“Ah… Sorry for that, Zeeta, I may be fine, but I’m starving right now, so it would be better if you don’t come near me.”

“… You’re… starving? I’ll give you my lifeforce! Open the door!” He tried to force it open, but my arms didn’t budge, nor did the door. “Crap, why won’t you open it?! Ray, you! What are you starving him for?! Are you even human?! Damn necromancer, I’m gonna crush you to pieces—!”

“Zeeta!!” I called out angrily. “If you hit Ray, I won’t play the violin with you ever again!”

There was a silence. Looks like my childish threat worked. Thank goodness. Zeeta could be such an impulsive friend sometimes… I added:

“Ray just saved my life again. He said I must not eat for three days to recover, and I believe in him. If you want to help me, then don’t touch me. It’s hard to control myself right now.”

I opened the door. Zeeta and I looked at each other. Then he snorted and turned to Ray.

“I want to know everything.”

Ray shook his head.

“You’re not a necromancer, nor an undead. You’re not supposed to know.”

As I saw both of them glare at each other, my lips stretched into an annoyed smile under my mask.

“Come on, Ray. We can at least tell him what you told me. About the food… N-No, about the undead who turn into Heavenly Storms… No, wait, what am I saying? The thing is, Zeeta, I’ve eaten something so damn good that my core’s been turned upside down, and because of that, I’m going to become an adult… I mean, a Fury. And now Ray is afraid of giving me orders because, if he does, I won’t be able to stop eating humans… I mean, food. I mean, it’s the same in that case, hahaha…”

“…” Zeeta looked at Ray for confirmation, then frowned. “And what if you don’t stop eating?”

“I’ll explode.”

Ray snorted.

“You won’t! Stop imagining horrible things, Armen!”

Ray’s order flew through our necro-bond and struck my core. A stream of delight overflowed my mind then disappeared. It was as though a thousand of Cesarines’ had offered me their finest lifeforce for some seconds, then had fled away.

Hunger grew inside me like a deep void desiring to be filled. Dammit. My core was suffocating, pushing me to go hunt for lifeforce. Lifeforce. Life. So hungry… My eyes vividly stared at the faces of my two friends, and what they saw was—

—Life.

As soon as that truth struck me, I fought it with all my might.

Stop it. Run. Holy Gods, help me.

Dead to the world, not even hearing my friends’ voices, I took one step backwards and pushed the door shut with all my might. It banged. Fortunately, it was a thick door.

Ray and Zeeta must not come in.

That was what the most reasonable part of me was thinking. As for the rest…

Life.

My body is craving for life.

Life. What I don’t have. What my body craves to get back. And what it won’t ever get back.

New instincts were awakening. My core was on fire. A fire that burned the life of the living and wanted to spread all around.

A low, endless growl reverberated in my throat. What was that unbearable feeling? Overcoming my confusion, I finally understood: I was in pain. So far, I had never experienced pain, even when I was lacking lifeforce. Normally, when I was out of energy, my body would just stop working without a warning. But now I was aching, body and mind, because of my unfulfilled desires.

Furies really were different, huh.

On the other side of the door, Ray was surely cursing himself. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to make a blunder so soon.

But, well, thinking positively—

I stopped growling and smiled under my impermeable mask.

—that habit of Ray to order me when he didn’t want to was a rather comical side of him. Comical yet problematic.

‘Armen! I’m sorry!’

My life-lust had calmed down, and Ray’s mental voice could finally reach my core. His sincere and panicked apology managed to placate my bad mood. I grinned.

“It’s all right. I expected no less from my honorable master.”

‘I’m truly terribly sorry. I can’t believe I blundered so soon…’

“Even the most sensible and prudent necromancer in the world makes mistakes.”

‘… Are you being ironic?’

I laughed nervously.

“No, I’m just trying to calm down. Also, I have to apologize too.”

‘Hah?! Why should you?!’

“Well…” I looked down at my mutilated hands. Had I been digging into the door all this time? It looked like it, since there were cracks left on it. Rainbows, which had been so peacefully resting on its cushion a moment ago, was now cautiously watching me from under the bed, its eyes gleaming intently. I took the handle and opened the door, then showed my injured hands under Zeeta’s and Ray’s shocked eyes. Since I was masked, I grinned with my eyes. “Thanks for taking care of me. Master.”

Ray took a deep breath, then replied very politely:

“Could you please stop calling me master whenever you get hurt?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. He was trying so hard not to order me that it was hilarious.

“Also, it’s my fault you got injured in the first place,” Ray added.

“Haha, that’s true. Zeeta, I hope you didn’t punch him?”

“I didn’t! … Though I wanted to.”

I whistled, impressed.

“You controlled yourself so well.”

Zeeta snorted.

“Look who’s talking about self-control…”

* * *

Two hours later, a loudspeaker announced to the whole academy something like:

“TRAINEES! YOU ARE ALL TO *** IN THE *** SQUARE IN TEN MINUTES. LATE-COMERS *** A SANCTION. I REPEAT! YOU ARE ALL TO *** IN THE MAIN SQUARE IN TEN MINUTES.”

The message was in Common Language, but I had understood almost everything… Way to go, Armen Moon!

I looked down at my hands. After Ray had treated them, there was no sign of scar left, not even a mark. Necromancy sure was amazing.

I glanced at Rainbows, sitting under the window. I was going to stroke its fur, but its gaze deterred me from doing so. The cat was still wary of me even after Ray had told her to relax… Apparently, even undead cats had some survival instincts. I patted my anti-lifeforce muzzle on my face, cheered up, and turned to Zeeta and Ray.

“Ready, guys?”

Ray was tired as hell after spending so much energy taking care of my body’s issues, but he still nodded.

“I… guess,” he muttered.

Zeeta put his hood and his mask on.

“I was thinking of taking it off, but since you wear a mask as well, I’ll keep it. Though yours looks cooler with that skeleton smile.”

“Heh… Are you jealous? I have to say, Ray’s dad has good taste.” On hearing that, Ray snorted in disagreement. I added: “But if you were to wear mine, you would die from suffocation.”

“Mm… Then I’d just ask Ray to revive me.”

“Oh, that might work.”

“Are you two trying to kill me?!” Ray groaned. “I wouldn’t be able to revive even a fly right now! Also, Armen, please don’t… I mean, can you please remember you have to take our situation seriously? If someone touches you and you lose control, we’re done for.”

“I know.”

I stopped at the main door of the house, turned around, and fastened my eyes on Ray’s. If I exposed myself in a training intended for future Heroes, it would be no use to even hope for a miracle: I would be dead for good in a flash. Still, I couldn’t run away from the training now that I had decided to take part in it. I had come prepared to risk it all in order to follow Ray.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “So let’s go.”

At last, the training was starting.