She Belongs To The Devil

Suddenly, a small orange spark flared at the tip of Azriel\'s fingers. Adeline watched it curiously.

That spark grew bigger as he kept on chanting. And soon, that spark took the shape of a small circle. And second by second, that circle grew bigger and bigger until it was large enough to touch the ceiling of that hall.

Several lines, smaller circles, and other shapes started to appear inside that larger circle. When Adeline thought that the glowing orange circle was complete, Azriel paused his chanting and bit the thumb of his other hand.

Then he jerked his palm and splattered his blood towards Adeline. Adeline closed her eyes and flinched thinking that the blood would land on her but to her surprise, even though the magic circle was see-through, it still had some invisible force that didn\'t let the blood to pass.

Azriel\'s blood was soaked by the magic circle. And as if the magic circle was alive, it began to shake violently. After a while, it stopped shaking and 8 runes appeared on the empty spaces of that circle.

Azriel finally opened his eyes and spoke with a ragged breath, "It is going to sting a little. So bear with me."

And before Adeline could nod her head, she felt as though a spear passed right through her heart. She grunted and winced in pain. She dug her fingernails on her knees and tried her best not to make a sound.

Adeline took deep breaths in and then exhaled through her mouth in order to contain her pain. After a few seconds, the pain began to cool down. Then she glanced at Azriel through that magic circle in between them and asked, "Is it over? Was the spell successful?"

Azriel had a confused expression on his face. "Er… it-it hasn\'t even started yet. You will know when it will be over." The azure blue glow around his fingers started to glow even brightly and he added, "I guess I overestimated your pain tolerance. It is going to hurt a little more than earlier."

Azriel then closed his eyes again and Adeline inhaled nervously. She braced herself for incoming pain while hoping that the pain wouldn\'t last for too long.

Adeline focused her attention on Azriel\'s fingers again because the light was starting to behave strangely. It looked as if his fingers were not emitting the light but were sucking it… from her.

And suddenly it came, the flood of overwhelming and unbearable agony.

Adeline clutched her cloth with both of her hands and turned her head upwards. She was holding her breath because of the pain; the veins on her temple and her neck were bulging as if they would pop any moment now.

Azriel was gathering the demonic energy that was spread all over Adeline\'s body at the center of the magic circle. And because the power was being forcefully pulled out of Adeline\'s body, she felt as if each and every inch of her body was being slashed with a sharp knife. Not just that, she felt as though those wounds were being laced with salt and pepper and were being stitched back up with a huge needle.

No matter how much she was hurting, she did not want to show that she was weak. She bit her lips to prevent herself from screaming in agony but that made the pain even worse because her lips began to bleed.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Unable to hold in that extreme torture anymore, Adeline finally let her lips loose and let the hall be filled with echoes of her heart-wrenching screams.

She heaved her chest and arched her back, she was wriggling in anguish. Stream of tears fell down her cheeks involuntarily. She wanted the pain to stop but it kept on increasing. The pain became so unbearable that Adeline shifted from screaming to wailing in pain.

Adeline felt as if all of her internal organs were about to explode. And she pleaded to her Deity, "Azriel, please stop it… I cannot take it anymore."

But Azriel was not going to stop when he was so close to completing the spell.

Adeline began banging on the magic circle and she shouted again and again, "Please stop it… It hurts too much… please… ple…"

And then she lost her consciousness. If Azriel\'s magic was not pulling her towards the magic circle, then she would have collapsed to the floor by now.

After a while, the final trace of Adeline\'s demonic power was trapped in the middle of that magic circle. The circle then started to shrink in size until it could fit in one\'s palm.

Azriel motioned his glowing fingers forward and pushed the magic circle at the center of Adeline\'s chest. Adeline\'s chest heaved with great force as the inscription spell latched itself on her chest. Along with that inscription, the demonic power also went back inside her chest, although now it was no longer roaming freely in her body, it was now sealed.

Adeline fell backward on the carpet. She was still unconscious because of the insurmountable pain that she had just gone through.

Azriel picked her up in his arms and carried her out of that hall. He walked along the corridor for quite a while. And he reached in front of a huge white door. He pushed the door open with his leg and carried Adeline inside that room.

The room and its decoration looked as if it belonged to a woman. There were beautiful flower vases with fresh flowers in them. There was a huge dressing table and several pieces of jewelry were on display. The bed also looked soft and warm.

Azriel gently placed Adeline on that bed. Then he also sat down on the bed and gazed at Adeline very intently. Adeline was still covered in sweat and her lower lip had a blood clot on it. There were a few strands of her silver hair that were stuck on her forehead. Azriel gently brushed them away without averting his gaze from Adeline\'s face.

Then he took a deep breath in and whispered to himself, "This is for Athena."