Magical Heritage

37: Investigation.

The Seraphim's Eyes had begun to make rounds around the land of Uskan. They took on various quests, gates, and dungeons. Emopa, Mareth, and Ruek however, mainly did missions alone. Only a year has passed with nothing happening, aside from the queen of the Sky Islands, Noir asking them to take care of some Apostles that have been causing trouble in her lands. Currently, Mareth is sitting on a cliff, staring down at the land below. He looked up and saw a small crack in the sky. He narrowed his eyes and immediately dodged out of the way as something crashed in front of him.

He got into a stance but got out once he realized it was the girl he met back at the village. "Lilith!" He walked towards her and helped her up. "M-mareth... It's terrible!" She said, on the verge of tears. "What's wrong?!" Lilith held out Poppy and she dropped a letter. Mareth opened it and read its contents. His eyes slowly started to widen and fill with tears. He looked at her and started to laugh a little. "T-this is some sort of joke..." Lilith looked away with guilt in her eyes.

Guilty that she couldn't even help him. Mareth's sadness turned to rage, however, as he tore the letter and turned around. Punching the air and causing a huge shockwave. It shot pressurized air, causing a huge long crater to form in front of them. "No... NO! WHO DID THIS?! TELL ME." Lilith winced a little but nodded. "It was a man named Nightmare..." Mareth nodded, "Nightmare yeah? I'll kill that bastard and tear his limbs off!" Lilith grabbed him and managed to sit and somewhat calm him down, then just sat there and started to cry as memories of them came back.

"Shh... It's okay, but we have to train you first... Okay? You have to be strong, Olkapo wouldn't want you to just rush in there and get yourself killed..." After a few minutes, he nodded and hugged her, she blushed but hugged back. Meanwhile, Emopa was sitting crisscross in a dungeon, smiling. Emopa seemed a little strange as the months went by, he seemed more energetic, outgoing, and extroverted. Even both Oni's started to worry about him. His current weapon was a katana, which ability to slash things without needing to travel. "Shita, Oni, I have an idea!" He said.

"I'll remove your souls from the weapon, and make you both my summons!" He said enthusiastically. They both weren't against this idea. "Wait a minute, due to your strength, wouldn't your weapon break?" Emopa smiled, "Don't worry, I'll absorb its ability and put a fraction of my soul into this blade." Oni nodded and he took both their souls out of the blade, adding them to his tome. "I've also discovered something. I can summon the weapons you guys use, and I'm able to use your abilities. Oni and Shita, since you guys are the strongest summons I have yet, you'll be able to summon yourselves at will."

Oni nodded. "Alright!" The ground began to rumble and Emopa grinned. "Besides, I heard that Noir says the Apostles have been bugging her people again, this will be fun!" He grinned and watched as a giant worm-like beast shot from the ground. "I heard apostles are servants of either gods or vergers, it can be either." Shita nodded. "You're right." Emopa stared up at the worm, grinning a little as it crashed down onto him. Emopa appeared on the side of a desolate tower.

"Alright, so we're in a plain field... The actual dungeon is west of here, toward that castle... Or lair, whatever that is." He heard growling and saw the worm rise from the ground. "I taught Amy all the moves of my true sword technique, she'll put it to better use than I can." Emopa stretched out his hand and the worm was immediately split clean in half. "You guys feel that?" Oni appeared next to him floating. "It's an apostle, it appears it's using this place as a hideout. It's in the dungeon. They have divine energy but it's so little that you actually can't tell."

Emopa grinned. "Let's go then!" He jumped from the building and landed on the ground before running toward the castle. "Hmm? Doc." The Doctor appeared next to Emopa, his long scalpel nearly being dragged across the ground. "Hm?" Emopa pointed towards the gate. "Go, analyze the gate." He stopped in his tracks and waited. Doc scanned the entire building with a robotic eye, and he grinned. "There's a magical barrier, sir." Doc seemed bigger. Emopa had gained more and more mana over the past year, allowing his summons to grow stronger and evolve some.

"You look quite different, Doc." The person laughed and nodded. "Of course, master. Ever since you've gained more mana both in reserves and base, all of your summons have become more powerful." Emopa laughed. "Awesome! Can you take down that magic barrier for me?" Doc nodded and made his way to the entrance. He touched the seal and it immediately evaporated. Causing the Apostle inside the building to get startled and start opening a portal. It was a physical structure that could only lead to one place. He watched as the symbols slowly started to glow around the circular structure.

"Fuck... Come on... COME ON!" He turned around and saw Emopa down the hall. He laughed a little and grinned. "Ya know! That thing is awfully slow, I was able to loot more than half this dungeon, and get some stuff for my summons." He said as the Apostle's eyes widened. 'What? It's Emopa! The one that the Lord told us to seek out so we have his location! Wait... It's only been a minute and he was able to loot more than half this castle?' He heard the sound of a low vibration and saw the portal open.

There, on a throne of skull and bones surrounded by devout followers sat Plague. He stared at the portal before his eyes widened. "Emopa!~ You, Johnson, you've done excellent work finding him, I will promote you!" The Apostle's eyes glimmered as he ran through the portal. "My Lord I am eternally grateful!" Plague walked down, using the skulls of dead animals as stepping stones. "Emopa." He stared as the portal began to close. "One day. I give you one day for you and your friends to prepare. I won't do any grand entrance or anything, just know, it's on sight."

He smiled and touched the Apostle. "Infect." The Apostle's skin began to decay and fall off as he screamed in agony. "Oh yeah, just to make sure, Regalia, get him." A blindfolded woman dashed through the portal right before it closed. "This is a test to make sure you're worthy of being mine, bye!" Plague waved and Emopa took out his phone, sending a text to everyone to investigate any ruined portals or structures they see, dungeons are not an exception. "Okay, so who are you?" Emopa asked as the grey-skinned woman looked at him. "My name is Regalia, Verger of Fear."

Emopa grinned, "Fear huh?" He looked around. "I managed to find a placeholder soul to put inside this katana. I named him Ruk." Regalia began to walk toward him, summoning a bo staff in one hand and a dagger in the other. She wore a black dress that showed off her waist and thighs a bit, as well as wearing a bunch of jewelry that was primarily made of gold. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, as what she felt was nothing but pure evil for a split second. "What was that?" She asked.

Emopa laughed and snapped his fingers, Rot and Skull being summoned. "If you can get past these two, you can fight me," Regalia growled a bit. "You take me for a weakling?" She asked, making Emopa raise a brow before returning them. "Very well. Since Dungeons are realms separate from reality, we can go all out, right?" Emopa's mana began to slowly expand, more and more of it being released. "Let's have some fun!"