My Servant System

By the time that Leone had cancelled her spell and allowed the desert to return to normal, the area around her was incapable of doing so; where before the glittering gold grains of sand had rested in the thousands, catching and reflecting the rays of the sun to create a serene and beautiful - and hot - landscape that was such a simple yet incredible sight, there now rested a rather unnatural and horrifying plane of clear-ish glass above the sands we were familiar with.

Even if this glass would eventually crack and break before returning to the sands from which it came, it was still a proclamation of Leone's might that would never be forgotten, not by those of us who had witnessed it.

The Vampire responsible for it swayed on her feet after the spell ended, and before anyone else reacted Jahi raced down the side of the basin, rushing towards the Vampire's side in hopes of catching her if she fell, but Anput was closer and quicker, even if she reacted a smidgen later than Jahi.

Clicking her tongue, the Sultana had all of the Jackals follow her down towards the two fighters, and I walked beside her as I continued my analysis of the Vampire from afar, giving her a few moments of space and 'peace' before she would be surrounded by people, since I had a feeling the mana array was about to drop any second now.

With Anput and Jahi already fussing over her and her obvious exhaustion, I was more than fine allowing her to have a few moments to breathe without being cloistered between multiple bodies, and since I knew that she was suffering from mana exhaustion only, I could logically push my worry away and instead focus on something that caught my eye, something that was really interesting to me.

Where Ka'Volan had been, there obviously was little trace left of the Fiend, but it was a little trace that fascinated me since that sort of heat, empowered by magic; there wasn't anything that I could think of that should have survived that heat, at least nothing that I could recall from my studies and what I thought I knew from both my world and this one.

So for something to survive that heat - and for that something to have come from a Fiend - I had to say that I was far more curious than a cat as I peeled away from the Sultana, heading across the glass and approaching the object of my curiosity.

The glass shattered under my weight, the sound of crunching filling the air as I put all of my focus on whatever it was that had dropped, not bothering to try and have my boots glide across the surface instead.

What rested atop the glass was an interesting thing that was hard to comprehend on why it was here considering what had happened, because... well, a spattering of ruby bones - slightly charred, but otherwise unblemished - rested atop the glass, and one of those bones was the Fiend's skull.

"Cali, is this some sort of trick, or..?"

"Hm~? Oh, this?"

Appearing from my shadow, the Arch Fiend hummed to herself and drifted around me lazily, basking in the sun and stroking her serpentine hair as she stared at the bones for a few seconds, before turning to me with a small smile.

"Wanna touch Ka'Volan's big, hard bone~?"

I blinked once before deadpanning as I turned to stare back at her, making Cali chortle in amusement as she continued to drift around freely, unhindered by anything at all, which seemed to include both shame and a good sense of humor.

"Well, besides this Fiend being a bunch of hot air condensed within a skin suit constantly over hyping their abilities, Ka'Volan wasn't too special amongst the Ka Fiends. Just a tenacious bastard who liked killing things, like all the others, but instead of beating them to a pulp or running them through with a blade, Ka'Volan liked watching them burn. So you tell me; does the idiot who plays with fire 'cause it's funny to hear people scream anticipate being burned alive?"

"Probably not, but when have you Fiends ever followed a logical and normal thought process? Maybe this idiot wanted to know what sort of pain it inflicted onto people by doing it to itself? That wouldn't be a first. Or maybe this is a genius playing around at being an idiot? Also not a first."

"Well, just like your first, Ka'Volan is gone and never coming back~!"

The Arch Fiend snickered at her own jokes, and I just glared at her before turning back to the bones, asking "So are they trapped or not, Cali?", which made her hold her sides as she spun around a few times, enjoying herself far too damn much.

"No, not at all~! This idiot didn't even think that death was an option for itself, so there was no reason to bother trapping its bones like the rest of us do~! Well... the paranoid of us do, anyways."

"Thank you."

Ignoring the floating pink skinned model that continued to yammer on with no sign of stopping, I crouched in front of the ruby bones and began to gingerly separate them from one another, creating a few groups based on how much mana was inside them.

Not all of the Fiend's bones were here, but there were enough from the two hundred or so more bones that it should have - if it had a similar skeletal structure to humans, anyways - to be considered a substantial haul, especially with the potency that each bone had.

For instance, this tiny knuckle bone had a vast amount of Fire Mana lingering within its calcified surface, and the giant, thick femur bone had a similar quantity too, which made this a lucrative haul; the amount of mana was incredible even for the little I knew about Fiends and their parts, so I was a little excited to show this to the two victors who had the rights to these spoils.

The skull was the real prize here, the vast amount of mana lingering beneath its surface giving me a moment of exhilaration as I wondered just how powerful a weapon or piece of armor would be if it was made from this...

It would be a tad primitive in appearance and rather crude too, but if we made a staff out of this skull for Leone to wield, how much further would she be able to amplify her magics and how much stronger would they be?

How much stronger would the tornado that she summoned earlier be if she had this skull to cast her spell through?

Each of the bones were really potent, so this was one hell of a haul that we had come across, and I could only imagine that when we have a better skillset in enchanting and smithing, these would be the beginning of some of our greatest and strongest weapons and armor going forwards.

We might already be at that level, but I could only imagine that we were both more wary of using these materials and making a mistake with them, which would waste them forever, then we were unsure that we could actually do something with them.

I think we were skilled enough to forge and enchant them, but only time would tell, so I scooped up all of the bones and made my way over towards Leone and the others, who had been crowded by the people of Khisba.

"This place is boring."

Cali drifted beside me, her body going translucent as she hid herself from the people of this Oasis, but she remained noticeable to me as I asked "How so?", which only made the Fiend sigh and twirl around as she replied "Because these people have little ambition. They are a literal people, a logical, serious people. They do what they need to survive and occasionally enjoy the finer things of life, but not often. I can feel it on them... so boring..."

That made me shrug, not really caring about what this group of Caninekin and other Beastkin were like, nor really finding myself that interested in them at all since I had other matters that were far more pressing, like delivering the bones of our enemy to the Jackalkin and Vampire who killed them.

They were a tad heavy, but not that bad to carry, so I just waltzed on over to them and cut through the crowd of people who were ogling their saviors and whispering to one another about how they should reward them for saving them, and it was clear that Cali wasn't lying about them being a rather logical and serious people.

Their voices trickled into my ears as I heard the ideas of pooling together coin to pay Anput and Leone, the idea of offering food and water for free and hosting a feast for them, and even a few that were suggesting giving Anput and Leone slaves if they so desired...