Demons to Face
An RP by NekoLen and Tachigami

Ohiel's meditation was never interrupted now. Over time, those curious individuals that would trek to the top of his mountains had dwindled to nothing, but he didn't seem to care anymore. The isolation, insanity-inducing for most, was a welcome to Ohiel, who meditated away his days and half his nights. What he ate was dried and salted to preserve them for decades, and monthly he checked the drop box outside the heavy iron doors of his stony fortress for the bag a villager that lived at the base of the mountain brought up. He always left a small but important protective charm as payment, the item usually worth more than a month salary for a farmhand. He didn't eat much, however, so the stock he had built up could survive several years at least. But he didn't bother telling the deliverer, as they never made their presence known. The footprints in the snow always vanished in minutes with the high winds and near-constant snowfall.

Ohiel sat in front of a white stone. It was taller than him when he stood, encrusted with pure blue and white stones in gentle twists. When he knelt and offered his silent prayers the stones glowed in response, and they often glowed every day, multiple times a day. Now they glowed, shone brightly, and offered a small spotlight on the ground before his knees. He swept his long, pure white hair aside and opened his eyes, which shone silvery rather than their usual ice-blue. "I see." He whispered, his voice somewhat hoarse from disuse. "There is a darkness. Desperate. No---strength. Can't you see?" His fur-lined white robes billowed as a sudden, cool breeze picked up as if in response. "No... My life is for you, as it always is. My life---my being. But I will not refuse." The breeze stilled.

"Temperamental." He sighed, shaking his head and closing his eyes. "I refuse to allow pain where I can heal." The breeze returned with a slight, hushed whisper. "Ah... I know... Some souls are beyond redemption. But was I?"

The hushed whisper seemed to speak in a low, negative moan.

"I thought as much. Why would I turn my back on one that needs my help? I ignore so much---It can push a man to insanity." The breeze stopped. "There is nothing you can do to change my mind. I am a master now, I can mark my own path, but I ask you do not abandon me, as I have not abandoned you. I never questioned your abuses in all the years I have followed your teachings." He felt a shuddering breath of air, like a ragged sigh, and then it smoothed out, then died. "Very well. I will visit the High Point tomorrow and give you my offering." He pushed back the oversized sleeve on his left arm and studied the X-shaped scar on his wrist. It tingled lightly at his touch. The spotlight on the ground diminished, and the glowing gems fell dark.

He had been born to the High Priest and High Priestess of the Lightbringers - an exclusive group of light mages known for their strong healing spells. Shade had grown up as any other young priest, going to school to be taught the way of his people and attending rituals and praying sessions to their multiple Gods. He had even been praised for his abilities, being one of the stronger priests in his class. But soon, Shade thirsted for another power, one that he had read about and knew it was forbidden in his Order - Shadow Magic.

He studied in secret, learning how to inflict pain instead of heal, how to control the darkness and shadow, how to create bad emotions in people. Soon his secret studies were discovered and he was brought before a full court, in front of his parents who looked down from their pedestals in shame at what their son had become. He was exiled, thrown from the village and forced to live on his own in the mountains. Full of hate and anger at what had happened, he welcomed darker forces into his soul, believing their lies of serving him and making him become powerful.

Now, the voices never stopped. Shade woke from a shallow slumber, remembering nothing about the nightmares he had been dreaming. He rubbed his eyes, which were once pure blue but were now shadowed and bloodshot. He sat from where he had made his bed, which he had made out of straw and grass. Today he would try once more to reach the top of the mountain, to see the fabled Ohiel. A priest so powerful, Shade was sure he could cure him of his multiple possessions. He ignored the whispering and shadows that moved about the cave. After a year he had become used to the voices and delusions that the demons inflicted upon him.

He pulled on his boots, glaring at his frostbitten toes. It had been quite a hike and it was freezing. He hadn't much protection against the elements, even the Hellfire he could conjure didn't keep the frost from turning his toes and fingers black. The demons laughed, scratching at the insides of his skull. It hurt, but he didn't make any noise. They were weaker now, it was the best time to start his journey. He gathered what supplies he had and left the small cave he had been using as a temporary shelter. The world outside was covered in white snow, and a harsh wind slapped his face. He shivered in his thin robes, looking upwards, towards the peak.

"You are not going to make it. You will die and come Summer when the ice melts, the wolves will feast upon your festering corpse," the deep voice laughed at him in a mocking way. He shuddered at this voice. Unlike the others, this one belonged to a powerful demon, one that had tricked him into giving up his soul and body. "I will make it, you'll see. and when I get there, he'll send you all back to the darkness you came from." He hardened his resolve and started up the mountain face.

Ohiel arrived at the High Point faster than anyone would have thought possible. The snow hardened under his fur-lined boots when he stepped down and softened when he stepped away. At the High Point---the smooth stone at the very peak of the mountain---the wind whipped painfully, but Ohiel was accustomed to it. He knelt at a stone offering bowl, drawing a white-tipped knife and slicing through the scar tissue on his arm, opening it up, the shock of red blood against pale skin surprising, but not to him. He dripped some into the bowl and ran a hand over his injury, and the skin knitted effortlessly again. Cinching the furry white robes around him, Ohiel bent low and touched his head to the bowl, his long, long hair whipping aside as he muttered.

"Sel. I appease. My life. My dedication. My soul. Purity. Purge." He reached into his pocket as the wind died down a bit, and pulled a feathery leaf out, sliding it into his blood and standing. "My offering to you." He spoke loudly, his blue gaze solid and his expression never betraying whether he felt anything. He bent at the waist, offering a bow, and turned curtly. He didn't manipulate his hair as it whipped around his head in a huge cyclone when the wind came again, and his trek back down to the fortress was a quiet, uneventful one. He passed what looked to be a small stone creature that resembled a dragon. But it was just that---stone. It looked fierce in the pure white, protecting the mountain, almost. At this point Ohiel couldn't even remember where it came from.

He returned to the courtyard and closed the gates, but didn't lock them and went up the flight of stairs to the wide double iron doors. However, something was different. A dark form, a bundle of cloth. He couldn't see a face. Stepping forward, Ohiel turned the form over and his eyes widened a fraction. "Ah. Is this the one you revealed to me?" He asked. The wind held no response. "I see, I see, silent. Still angry at me, I suppose. Take your offering for now, yes? I must make right this soul. Sel." He stepped over the apparently young man and opened the heavy iron doors, which were made to stay open even in high winds. Then he crouched, effortlessly scooping up the unconscious man and stepping inside. He pulled the doors closed with some difficulty, bringing the young man through the hallway and up a small set of stairs, then through another hallway and to a door that was open. It was one of several bedrooms which at one point often held those that would journey to find him. Perhaps it had become too difficult to come to him in the recent decades, however.

He laid the young man down and bent over him, inspecting his arms, pulling his half-frozen and soaking boots off. "Ah, dreadful." Ohiel sighed. "Simply dreadful. Did none speak of the dangers? You should have worn warmer clothing." He took the young man's feet, running his hands over the blackened flesh and warming them, and after a moment, they grew lively and pink again. "Ah, not bad. You are indeed alive. Exhausted, of course, but alive. I can feel the turmoil." He brought his hands to the young man's fingers, following suit. "Indeed you have much darkness. Come to me when you can---I'm sure you will. I'm very sure." He drew heavy furs up and around the young man's body, tucking him in carefully, and stepped away. He had to meditate his thanks that the young man had come to survive the journey.

The journey had been harder than he imagined. Many times he stumbled and slid on the hard icy rocks, and by the time he reached what looked like a fortress, he was exhausted and in pain. His feet had become iced to his boots and they burned and were numb at the same time. He slumped onto the snow, the wind scratching his face like a thousand tiny claws. Inside his mind, the demons laughed and tried to hold him down. He curled up, the snow suddenly feeling like a warm bed. It was as though he had never been exiled and he was back at home. Why had he tried Shadow Magic? None of this would have happened...

When he finally came to, he was lying on a simple bed, wrapped in thick fur blankets. He blinked several times before he realised where he was. He had to have reached the temple where Ohiel was said to meditate. A man older than time itself, it was said that he was so powerful he could freely talk to the Gods. Shade was sure he could help him, get rid of the demons that now screamed in his head. The area was blessed, too bright for them. It burned him slightly, but he got out of bed and made his way through the many halls, finally finding Ohiel, meditating in a ornate hall. Shade was quiet as he approached, trying his best to ignore the pain in his head and how the demons screamed for him to slice the man's head off.

"Um... Are you Ohiel...?" he spoke quietly, but growled in annoyance at the voices in his mind. "You can help me, right?"

His robe was off---it weighed him down terribly and he hated being so restricted. Now he wore simple things, white though they were. A long, thin robe and soft shoes. Under his robe a thinner tunic and clinging set of pants kept his body heat to himself. His hair was what flowed most of all, off his head and encircling him. The gems glowed again as they accepted his praise, his meditation, melding his mind against the feeling of the spirits, the Gods, the beings that showed him all the world's good and bad at a moment's notice. Sometimes the whole world came into clear, sharp focus and it threw him into an agonizing coma-like state.

He breathed in when a desperately dark energy emanated toward him. Even when the young man spoke he didn't move for several minutes. He was silent as the new voice echoed off the stone walls, and a while after the noise died down Ohiel raised his head. The gems that encrusted the prayer stone fell dim. "I am Ohiel." He said simply, without looking toward where the man stood. "And I will. Come." He raised a hand, standing and turning around. "Come to me, young man. I can feel the roiling darkness even from here, but I want to look at you." He gestured to the floor in front of him, a tile-formed floor of polished stone that gave the room a mirror-like quality. "You must be desperate to have nearly died on your way here. What is your name? The spirits show me much, but not everything." He offered a slight curl of his lips, something like the ghost of a smile.

Shade approached timidly. This man emanated power, a power that he had never felt before. The pureness of this energy burned him and he held back a scream, one that would bear the screams of the many demons that lived inside of him. When he sat before Ohiel, he tried to avoid his gaze, those eyes so like his own but not... Shade wondered what this man could see. Could he see the thousands of demons that called Shade's mind home? He flinched when the man touched him. Suddenly his eyes became red and an unspeakable rage filled his body.

"You dare touch us? Do you not know who you are dealing with? We are ancient. Your powers will not affect us. We are all powerful!" the voice he spoke was not his own. His hands tightened around Ohiel's wrists and he dug his sharp nails into the man's flesh. He struggled to get in control again, but the demons were too powerful. They made him stand, still clutching onto Ohiel's wrists. He opened his mouth a roared, an unearthly sound that echoed about the hall. Everything here made him angry, the man in front of him, the statues and carvings of the Gods, the crystals that were glowing eerily white not too long ago... He wanted to destroy it all, and murder Ohiel. "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" he cried, collapsing and covering his face, weeping uncontrollably.

Ohiel expected what happened. The absolute darkness coming from the man---Shade?---had spoken into the future. What would happen were he to touch the vessel they called home. He didn't speak when hands grasped his wrist, dug in, pulled. He followed, standing, then blinked slightly when the real Shade came through and fell at his feet. It surprised him---but he didn't show it. Didn't let his heart race. Didn't widen his eyes. When he fell, Ohiel crouched before him, removing his thin robe and letting it fall. "Shade." He spoke evenly, sternly, like a father disappointed in their son. "Look up. Your body is strong, but not as strong as the demons within you. What has bridged your soul to the world they inhabit?"

He slid to his knees. After an outburst like that he could feel the darkness recede just a bit. They didn't want to damage their vessel by forcing another explosion. He slid his hands over Shade's cheeks, bringing his face up. "Tell me now. I cannot help you if I do not know the cause. What has brought you to be tethered to these creatures? How do they keep inhabiting you?" His voice took on a sharp, stony quality. His eyes flashed but he kept the emotion unreadable.

"A... pact..." Shade said finally, drying his eyes on his dark blue robe's sleeve. "I... Studied dark magic... Shadow Magic... I wanted to be powerful... Become a Necromage." Saying it out loud made him sound like a whining child and he cleared his throat, looking down in shame. "I know now of my mistake. The demon that tricked me... He is an old and powerful elemental. He opened the portal to the Otherworld and let in his brothers and sisters... There are so many inside of me... I can hear them... Feel them craw under my skin."

He ran his hands over his arms, as if to feel the demons' claws and hands pressing up against the skin. "Please, can you help me? I want to go home. I miss my parents, my village..." He felt tears welling up again. Even though he was an adult, and it had been more than a decade since he was banished, he still felt like a child, one that had disobeyed his parents.

Ohiel showed true emotion suddenly. His eyes flashed, this time with anger, but he reeled it in carefully. He had practiced controlling and contorting his emotions very, very carefully over the years, and had mastered that. He stood, brushing his hair back and pulling up the dark-clad young man. Without looking at him, Ohiel began to pace around him in a tight circle, twisting his long mane of hair in one hand. He was silent for a while, staring at the weeping man and studying him carefully. "There are times I wonder whether my spirit friends are too quick to judge." He said after a while. "Whether they are... too harsh on the world. But then I am aware of those like you. Those that truly want power. That do not know how to handle it. You wanted to become a Necromage because of the power, am I correct? Don't try to answer, young man, I know this is the truth. Who would dare dabble in the dark if not for power? To show the world that they are to be feared? To get what they want?"

He stopped in front of Shade and released his hair, forcing the young man to look up. "And you have gotten in over your head. In desperation you come to me. Those that come to me wish for little more than to understand patience, to become closer to the Gods, to have a sense of fulfillment, but you come for selfish needs. And... yet, I feel compelled to help you." He sighed, running his hands over the prayer stone and its gems. "I am forced because it is in my nature. I will help you." He looked back at Shade. "But because of the sheer number I feel, I must do a ritual that may indeed cause pain. I need to understand how many demons are inside you." He turned, sighing, and shook his head. "Tell me, young man... Were you a part of the LightBringers at one point? Some years ago I noticed an awful upset among them. One of them turned to darkness, dabbling dangerously. This was you?"

So Ohiel knew about his exile. He hung his head in shame, nodding at his question. His parents... The way they looked at him... His father... Disowning him in front of the whole court and then exiling him... he just wanted to see his parents again, to apologise for his foolishness. He wanted to hear kind words, not those evil ones whispered to him all the time. "I am... Was the son of Diana and Yudin Nova...'' He wondered if his mother ever thought about him, worried for him... Maybe he had siblings now? Sisters, brothers...? His mother had been with child before he was exiled. He wanted to meet his siblings and be a good big brother to them.

"I don't mind the pain... I have been living with pain for the past 10 years or so... The demons... Really like pain..." Though not this burning sensation he was feeling just being in this hall. He wondered how many spirits were around them, and if the Gods were actually close to them as they talked. Wouldn't they be disgusted with him? He had been selfish, yes. He didn't deserve to be in their presence.

Ohiel breathed in and out several times carefully. "Young man, I will help you. But you need to be prepared for long treks. You need to be prepared to feel pain that you have never felt before. You need to be prepared to possibly not survive to the end of the full ritual." He looked back at him, and felt a breath of air. "Ah, yes, yes... I know, I will." He brushed off the feeling and turned back to Shade. Was that even his real name? Perhaps he had changed it to avoid admitting who he was. "Shade, I will help you, if not because my little friends are suddenly so optimistic." He smiled a bit. "But you must undress, and you must follow me to be cleaned and purified." He turned, picking up his discarded robe. "When you are out of your... travel clothes... put this on. The walk is not a far one."

He turned and left the room, walking slowly so that Shade had a moment to catch up with him. When he did, he picked up his pace a bit, coming to an alcove with a small spiral staircase going downward. "Come along." He said simply, and started down. Immediately a warmer enveloping air followed by a thick humidity unusual for the top of a mountain began to envelope them. Firelight illuminated the rectangular room and the deep pool and its various pipes, and steam rose from the water.

"This is pure water from the top of the mountain, where only I can reach." Ohiel said simply. "I bring fresh snow down when I can, as it always replenishes. It is heated by the heat of the mountain's natural gas and magma reserves. It warms my dwelling. And as I, and my spirit acquaintances bless the water, it will clean the humanity from your skin and leave you as you are individually. And it will make the demons understand that you are in protective custody now. I will not allow them to overpower you when I feel the strong one begin to rise up, but I will not force them back. They must come to me. And even if they refuse, I will force them as the ritual begins. As long as you are prepared to face the reality that you may well die." He turned to Shade. "You are ready for that, are you not?" He asked in a low, demanding tone.

Shade wore nothing but the robe provided, so desperate for Ohiel's help he didn't bother to feel embarrassed about his nakedness. His skinny form with pale skin tinged with blue, the scars from where he had been scratched and attacked by the demons, the bruises he got so easily... It was a sad sight. He stood in front of the man and listened to what he was saying. A blessing? A baptism? He hadn't bothered to try cleansing himself since the demons took control of him. He hadn't thought of it.

He thought about dying and grew sad, but nodded slowly. "As long as my soul is free... And my parents know I am sorry." He couldn't rest knowing his parents hadn't forgiven him and he didn't want to be dragged down with the demons, to become one of them.

Ohiel closed his eyes slowly, as if the motion were putting him to rest for an instant. Then he opened them slowly, gazing as if he could see through to Shade's troubled soul. "Whether or not your parents forgive you is up to them. But delving through this extensive and agonizing purge will show them just how far you are willing to go to earn their trust again. Seeking me out, initially, could have been a death sentence, especially as you were not adequately prepared."

A breath of warm air shifted through the rising steam. "Ah, yes, I understand... Shade, if you survive when this is said and done, I will personally accompany you to my old order and prove to them that you have reformed. But you will not be able to go back for several months after, should you make it through. I will keep you here, and you will glimpse my thoughts and teachings and understand what being a man of purity and life is about. I will know if you stray back to your old, harmful habits, and if this happens, I will not be so benevolent."

He turned and stepped onto the stone encircling the rectangular bath. "Disrobe and enter the water. I and the spirits will keep the demons within you settled while the holy water washes over you. But you will feel a burning pain within. Disregard it---the demons feed off your attention and your energies, and depriving them of one will weaken them, if somewhat." Before he stepped in, Ohiel shed his tunic, shoes, and pants, and slid into the waist-deep water. He barely made a noise as he slid into the center, his hair drifting around him in gentle swirls. "Enter, and I will help submerge you. Clear your mind, Shade, this is first and foremost." He raised a hand to the young man, feeling the air in the underground room swirl a bit more.

Shade looked into the water with apprehension. He could hear the demons screaming, and they held him, trying to prevent him from entering the water. He growled with annoyance and forced himself to disrobe and enter the water, his skin instantly boiling as if the liquid was hot. He gritted his teeth, seeing his flesh bubble and blood escaping from his pores. He closed his eyes, knowing it was just a delusion. The demons screamed and writhed in agony, the powerful one trying to break through to stop him from doing what he was doing.

The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was as though he was being burned alive, from the outside and inside. He felt tears falling but ignored them as his body shuddered. He couldn't die now. He hadn't gone far at all. He steeled himself, holding his breath as he was forced under the water. He felt as though he was going to drown, and flailed, the demons ripping at his insides. He saw his arm change a few times, bones and spikes sticking through his flesh. Was that a dream? He didn't know. It was hard for him to stay awake. "Ohiel..." He looked up at the man in desperation. "DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" the voice escaped him as he was forced under again.

He could see the dark energies radiating out of him immediately. He could almost feel the shock through the water but didn't move, didn't let himself acknowledge that. His decades---how many decades?---of meditation kept him focused on one thing---the human himself. The young man that had so much potential, as much as Ohiel himself, but had wasted it by forming a pact with a demon Ohiel knew. He knew the demon because he'd seen the demon. Only once. It had been a challenge and he had beaten the challenge. But it had almost been otherwise. The air moved faster, and he reached forward as Shade paused and forced him under the water. He brought him up once to let Shade catch his breath, and smothered the demon's roar by shoving him under again.

The air throbbed with energy, power, something he hadn't felt in a while but was familiar with. He fed the purity into Shade, quelling the beasts that tried to roar. Whatever he was seeing made his eyes go wide and... what was that, terror? He pushed the young man under again and held him there for a moment. When the struggle came from a necessity to breathe, he brought Shade up and gestured to the air swirling in the steam around them, and it enveloped them. "Quell the demons, show them no mind. Take away their immediate link to the outside world and focus on me. Look at me." He gripped Shade's arms tightly, letting the spirits and gods that fed through him into Shade's mind. "Feel the purge, the power, let it free you for the moment. Show the creatures you are in charge. I am in charge!" His eyes narrowed, but that was the only change to his expression as his voice roared to its full power. The wind shifted around them again, and began to fade.

"Do you feel the positive energy?" He asked gently. "It doesn't purge the demons, but it terrorizes them in a different way. Your body is cleansed, but you will have to follow me to great lengths to remove these beings from within. I want to help, but I must identify them all. I can only do this with your body and mind at ease. Are you at ease?" His question was pointed and steady despite the situation.

Shade was shaking and gasping for air, hardly able to stand before Ohiel. He could still feel the demons inside of him, but they felt hurt, afraid. It was a good feeling and he nodded. Though we wasn't exactly feeling at ease, the voices had stopped and he could actually think in his own voice. He was surprised to hear it, his conscious. It had been such a long time it sounded pitiful and weak.

"I will calm myself for you, Master Ohiel," he replied, remembering his teachings. To calm oneself they must meditate, and to meditate... He closed his eyes and imagined his family home, breathing in and out, ignoring the pain still radiating through his body. "I am at ease."

Ohiel smiled gently. "Good. Ease your mind. Block the demonic voices. They must fill your head. Follow me in hearing nothing. Nothing and at the same time, everything. Fall silent!" His voice called, and as the echo died away, the wind did as well. "Here, absolute silence will envelop you. Clear your mind and let your spirit leave your body. Your body is simply a shell, a vessel. It is how so many demons can inhabit you at once. And with you gone, they lose more power. When they lose power, I can more freely enter your mind and identify just how many there are." He kept his hands on Shade, but loosened his hold a bit until his palms were just hovering above his cool skin. "Ignore everything. Even me."

He closed his eyes and felt as if wings were sprouted from his back, lifting him as he let go of his earthly vessel. When he let go entirely, he could often soar away and visit any earthly plain within a moment's notice. Just a little longer took him to the spiritual and godly realms.

Shade did as instructed, but found it hard to leave his body. It was though he was afraid what would happen if he left it in the many hands of the demons. He held his breath as he felt a gentle tug deep inside of him, and the claws of the demons trying to keep him inside. Soon he was floating, looking down upon his deathly pale body. He no longer felt the demons inside of him, or heard their malicious voices. He looked upwards and saw the sky, even though they were in a building. Was that... Heaven? The afterlife? He glanced back at his body, amazed to see it still standing. The demons were fighting over the empty vessel. He could hear them bickering under his own breath. The more powerful demon had been weakened from the experience, it seemed.

Suddenly he felt a grip on his shoulder and he looked to his side, frightened to see Ohiel there with him. He tried to speak, but no sounds came out. The spirit of Ohiel seemed to smile slightly and suddenly, they were going back down into Shade's body, but inside hie mind. It was dark in here, with many creatures running around.

His eyelids grew heavy, and Ohiel closed his eyes as he felt himself breach Shade's conscious. It was detached, his body standing upheld by his, but both of them stood in a swirling darkness. Shade stood alongside him and Ohiel grasped his wrist tightly to keep from separating from him. "Open your eyes, but look up. Ignore what you hear or what you feel you might see." His eyes were open. Ohiel felt the overwhelming, filthy sensation of demonic fingers caressing his skin, tangling in his hair, sliding by his feet.

"I can see... hear... feel them all." He could identify each and every one, though it nearly overwhelmed him. Voices, independent from one another, overlapping but separating when they slid past his ear. His eyes were open wide and with the help of a cool breeze, everything lit up to him like electricity coursing through the world around him. "They are all... quiet. Settled. Fearful by the intrusion, but unwilling to act. And... another. I feel him close, but he will not show himself. There are... hun---no... No, many more. Many hundreds. No..." Ohiel narrowed his eyes. "... Thousands. Two... two thousand. Two thousand... four hundred... twenty... one? Two... Twenty two... Two thousand four hundred twenty two." He breathed in hard, and his grip tightened harder on Shade's wrist. In a moment they began backing out, extracting themselves from Shade's mind. The wings were back, and then the warm, glove-like, fitting back in their own bodies. Ohiel felt water, a cool breeze, and a human body so near. "Shade. Are you back?" He opened his eyes and put a hand on the young man's dark hair.

The demons clung to him as he was instructed to leave, as though they wanted him to stay with them, to become one of them. He fought against the many claws digging into his soul, his body still staring blankly forward. His dark blue eyes moved, the black pupils growing large as he stared at Ohiel. Shade couldn't leave. The powerful demon was here now, pulling him apart and ripping at his soul. No words came out, only small noises as his body twitched, still staring at Ohiel.

Suddenly he was let go and he blinked, glad to be in his body. He closed his eyes, feeling as though his heart had only started to beat again. "That many?" Was it even possible? He breathed heavily, longing to leave the water. He wanted to go back to his cave, go back to his cold isolation, where he plotted the deaths of the woodsmen that came near him and he ate birds he had caught raw and whole. He shook his head and looked to Ohiel again. "What is the next step?"

Back on steady legs, Ohiel turned Shade and directed him to dry land. "It is possible for this many demons to take root in your mind if they have a strong enough master demon. And with your corrupted healing and light magic, even more can feed in over time. If you had waited longer to come to me, Shade, you would possibly have been purged from your very body by these demons. You would have ceased to exist."

He pulled the robe onto the young man and clothed himself, heedless of the water still clinging to him. "The next course of action, Shade, is for you to follow me to my archives. I must remind myself of each purge location and the requirements that will help me rid your body of the lesser demons. If you survive to the end, we will have to return here, but further up, to the High Point that I visit to give my offerings to the gods. There, you will be so close to the gods and spirits that the master demon will be purged and destroyed somewhat easily. It will be painful, but if you survive the lesser purges, your body will be honed to the stress and accept it. I will have to enter your body to search the demon out, however. It will be painful, you will feel... invaded. But you will be pinned by spirits that will not allow you to move when I am in your mind. The stress, sometimes, is too much, and the body simply gives out. Are you willing to go to these lengths?" Ohiel studied Shade with crossed arms and a stony, critical expression.

"Anything... Anything to be pure again, for my family to forgive me... For you to see I am not greedy and selfish. You are my Master, I will do your every command.'' He bowed his head, and then bowed low in front of Ohiel, smiling at how the demons howled at him to stop. He felt liquid running from his ears and straightened, feeling slightly dizzy. He put his fingers to the liquid and brought them around so he could see what it was. Blood. He winced and looked up at Ohiel, his world turning black slowly.

"I think I am passing out..." he muttered, slumping to the ground. He blinked rapidly, trying to prevent the faint. Slowly he pulled back out of it, and the bleeding stopped. He got to his feet, shaking his head slightly. Most days he would black out for hours on end, and have no idea what had transpired while he was in the dark. ''I am OK... For now."

Ohiel smiled faintly, a look that faded slightly with the presence of blood. He brought his hands out, steadying the young man and herding him up the circular stairs. "Do not so overt submission to the opposite of what fills you." Ohiel said simply, emerging from the humid dark. "The demons are weak now, yes, but they will still prove to be rebellious. The last thing you need is to weaken yourself before the second step of this process is even taken. Come, now." He put a hand on Shade's back and led him down the hall, turning onto another hall, which led to a set of tall double doors.

He pushed the iron doors open and exposed a large, domed room full of bookshelves and desks and a large rounded table in the middle. In the middle of the table, a fire pit sat illuminating the entire room. "My archives. All the world's ancient and arcane knowledge is kept here, and I continue to add to it as the world and the gods' knowledge is revealed to me." He looked at Shade, wiping the blood away from his ears with a hand and dusting them on his shirt. "Sit at the middle table, warm yourself, and I will find the necessary tomes." He separated himself from Shade, hair sweeping behind him as he began drifting through the room, his eyes skirting the shelves as he moved.

Shade had loved studying, when he was a student of Master Rei in his village. Books were exciting to him and seeing so many in one place made him revisit his youth. His eyes gleamed as he looked about himself, scanning the many spines of the books sitting on the shelves around him. He would have given anything to read all these books, even if it took him centuries to finish them all.

"You have quite a collection." He sat at the table he was told to sit at, and watched Ohiel look for the tomes he needed. The fire warmed him, but he didn't get too close to it. The demons grew power from the element of fire, and often he would wake up from his blackouts to find he had started many fires and burned himself.

Ohiel nodded to himself, pulling several thick books from their shelves and bringing them to the table. "This collection was amassed over centuries of searching, writing, and memorizing." He settled the books carefully, separating the four. "These detail each location we will have to visit, what is needed in each location, what is not allowed which will disrupt the sanctity of each place, and the prayers and recitals we will have to endure to return each place's blessings to full strength. We must do this first, or risk the purged demons infecting the sacred location."

He pulled open the first book and pushed the old papers aside. "These places spread through the entire continent. We must trek there on our own to retain what purity we can, which will make the rituals easier to perform. Read with me, Shade. I will remember everything, but you need to try to read and remember as much as possible. We must leave as soon as possible, but only when you are able to travel at full strength. It's not difficult to go down the mountain, but it is still cold, and we will have to supply ourselves at the village at the bottom of the mountain. Are you prepared for this?" Ohiel looked at Shade in a form of concern he didn't often show, didn't often have the ability to show.