“We accept,” Isaac replied resolutely, his gaze shifting to Mary before returning to Alicia. “I wish to gain your help to return Mary to her original form.”
His gaze twitched as a voice shot through.
“Hey! I didn’t say I accepted!” Slar interrupted, walking to the front of the titan without any fear. “I’m just going with this weapon.” He glared at Isaac’s monstrous visage, who steadily stared back.
“What weapon?” A sly voice accompanied by a chuckle offhandedly commented, causing Slar to check his side to find the “weapon” to be missing. “This thing?”
Slar and the group turned to Alicia, now holding the troublemaking apparatus in her grasp. “I’ll be confiscating this. Now be still.”
Isaac and the group found themselves once more frozen to the spot, only able to move their heads. They were forced to focus once more on the woman, unable to speak.
“I promised more information on the thief that had stolen the accursed tome. Since all of you have unanimously agreed to it, I’ll tell you the details.” Slar’s struggling was ignored by her, but Alicia smiled knowingly nonetheless. “This thief is not alone.”
Isaac suddenly felt his voice return and took it as his cue to ask. He steadied his voice and rationalized his next question carefully. “This thief, how did he steal the tome?”
Alicia visibly clenched her fists before she relaxed once more. “It was partially my fault. I left for the day and met you and bargained your cure. In doing so, I carelessly left the mansion unguarded and I mistakenly set the wards in low-security mode. The thief was shrouded by a spell allowing his entry to go unnoticed.” Alicia snapped her fingers and in a split second, a comfy looking chair appeared behind her as she took a seat, looking at her fingernails in what seemed to be deep reminiscence.
“It was only when the tome was moved from its pedestal that I was alerted, right after the failed bargain with you. I teleported to confront the thief as quickly as I could, but even with the shields and wards at full strength, an emergency teleportation charm activated on him, and he was gone, once again shrouded.”
Isaac looked to Mary and Slar, noticing that their mouths were sealed shut. He accepted that for now, Alicia wanted him and only him, to speak.
Facing back to Alicia, his head tilted. “Then how do we find him?” The moment he asked that question, Alicia smiled at him, but Isaac felt shivers crawl up his corrupted spine.
“I was getting there, young paladinian.” Alicia chuckled a bit in her remembrance, a fitting punishment befalling the thief. “You see, that tome is a truly cursed piece of art. It's known as the Tome of Elemental Possession.”
She stopped for a bit to let the name sink in, watching the confused face of Slar and the attentive Mary, to the titan politely digesting the information. “Ironically, albiet rather fittingly enough, the tome itself is possessed.”
“What do you mean?” Isaac was partly confused at that, unable to understand how possession of inanimate objects was even possible. “A spirit is inhabiting the tome?”
Alicia shook her head and snapped her fingers once more, but now a cloud of sparkling lights appeared, lighting the room in their ethereal glow. They danced and swirled around her fingers, entrancing the group.
Alicia's head shook once again, “It's more than a mere spirit; a demon,” The lights formed to a visage even more terrifying than Isaac himself, the representation made of light absolutely terror-inducing. “The demon served as a base in the tome's creation."
The dancing lights changed shape once more, showing the tome surrounded by a halo of light, the image quickly shifting to show the mansion itself, still surrounded by the halo of light. “My mansion is protected by a powerful anti-evil seal, rendering all evil into a form of stasis. Once the tome was out of range, the demon awoke and possessed the thief.” She chuckled and muttered lowly, tone dripping with scorn. “Served him right.”
“You’ve found the thief, correct?” Isaac watched as Alicia nodded, the titan immediately firing another question. “Why have you not taken it yourself?”
A tense silence passed for a second before boisterous laughter betraying the frail form of the witch erupted from her. After her fit, she looked to Isaac and the group once more. “Am I truly that powerful in your eyes? While I feel honored that many folks here think that; in reality, while I am formidable, I'm nowhere near as powerful as many believe.”
Alicia manipulated the lights once again to form herself, before more lights formed shapes around her. “This is me, rumored to be all-powerful. The truth is that I am simply the keeper of dangerous multiversal items. My magic is mainly utilized for the sealing of these items.”
Isaac paused in thought, gaze falling to the floor before it quickly shot up to meet the keeper's gaze. “I see. But to me, you are still powerful.” Alicia chuckled at the praise to her, Isaac himself acknowledging her power. “Then, you require us to retrieve this tome from the possessed thief correct?”
Isaac waited a bit, but Alicia nodded anyway. “And where can we find him?”
“I will handle that soon, simply know that I’ve sealed the area around the possessed thief so that their ability to possess the elements around them is contained.”
Isaac nodded in understanding, ready to go for this quest. But before he could form a plan, Alicia suddenly stood up.
“But first, I wish to retake something from inside you.” She walked to the front of Isaac’s titanic form, gaze focused on his face. Or was she looking up to his halo?
KNEEL
On command Isaac found himself kneeling down before his body fell forwards to be barely supported by his arms, performing a push up to Alicia.
“I can sense you, my dear.” Alicia grabbed his halo, Isaac's body stiffening at her whimsical tone. There was a prodding presence grabbing deep into himself, and his body became wild.
It was an uncomfortable silence that felt like hours, his body roiling at the intruding feeling before a suction was felt inside his very body before the feeling disappeared, and Isaac finally noticing that he had been panting like a wolf deprived of water.
“W...what did you do?” Isaac struggled to look up, but he caught a glimpse of something of an orb of light in her arms, gently floating. “What is that…?”
“Oh, this is my apprentice you’ve been holding captive.” She patted his head as if he was a pet, before walking a few ways away. “Now, get me-"
LINEBREAK
Isaac fell flat on his face when the mansion’s steel floor was swapped out for a floor of clouds, his body limp from suddenly receiving back control. A voice lingers in the air, familiar to his ears.
“-my tome.”
“What the heck was that witch?!” Slar’s unpleasant voice screamed out when he was able to stand upright once more after regaining freedom of speech and movement. “I was forced to be a statue back there!”
“Don’t just think about yourself.” Mary rebuked in annoyance, shakily rising to her feet. Her human body still unfamiliar but she was getting there.
Isaac’s body felt wrong as if something was missing. Perhaps Alicia did take something from him. The paladin's musings were interrupted as he felt something tap his shoulder.
“Isaac, you need to see this.” Mary’s voice called to him, the titan heeding her call. Rising up after a painstakingly long moment of inaction, Isaac only now came to despise how his much movement was impeded by his titanic form.
Shaking off any complaints, the titan's eyes widened, the sight in front of him chilling him to his granite core.
A cave stood in front of him, but it was all sorts of wrong.
Describing it as infected was an understatement; veins of blackness spread out from the mouth of the cave, climbing up the cracked stone and stopping dead upon touching a line of almost invisible white light. The veins pulsed with disgusting black goop, some spurting out but thankfully splattering against another invisible wall.
“She wanted us to fight this?” Slar choked in fear, unable to believe his eyes. “Seriously?”
“It’s worse.” Mary suddenly commented and Isaac felt his ice drip. Because the things inside suddenly came outside.
And to say that they were demonic didn’t really come close to what they are.
“I’m dead, aren’t I…?"
Slar’s words were a good summary of what was going to happen.