Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (22 page)

“Like a million skorch,” Aura replied.

Ash turned to the girls, who appeared to be in shock. Shiva didn’t say anything, trying to look disinterested. Aralia had a wide smile on her face though, and voiced a strong approval.

“You look even better with short hair,” she told him.

Ash felt his cheeks turn red from either the heat or a blush. “Thank you Yazma,” Ash said to the teacher. He climbed to his feet feeling much better. The slight breeze cooled his head, helping to clear his ailments. Still, he felt troubled at the sudden weakness he felt in the presence of his opponent.

“Any time, Ash,” said Yazma. The ref’s whistle once again signaled the end, and their time out was over. Yazma left the field as the game was reset. Otozek’s team started with the ball this time, and it was pushed to their side of the field to begin the new round.

The demon Prince approached Moskazek. “There is something different about that devil boy,” he said, motioning to Ash. “He is
weak
. I sense a sickness growing within him.”

“Shall we make that one our prime target?” the loyal demon asked.

“Don’t bother; that one won’t give us any trouble.”

On the other end of the field, Ash and Shiva braced themselves on the front line. In a matter of moments, the ball would be cruising at them, propelled by the impossibly strong women. Shiva took a moment to address the boy’s condition.

“You sure you can play still?” Shiva asked. “You looked pretty beat back there.”

“I told you, it was just my hair getting in the way,” Ash said. “I feel great now.”

“You sure you don’t want to switch positions with Draxler?”

“I said I feel great!” Ash snapped. Shiva didn’t respond, the ref’s whistle signaling the start of the round. In truth, his headache had returned and his muscles still shook. But Ash tried to look tough, unwilling to let his friends down.

The leader of the demon team started off by slowly pushing the ball forward. Ash and his teammates watched and waited, knowing their opponents could blast the ball ahead at any moment. But the team’s leader went slowly, taking his time to keep his opponents guessing. Shiva was already focusing her soul power on her arms and hands, already prepared to jump in front of the ball.

Otozek made his move. Instead of going forward, the crowd gasped in awe as the greater demon lifted the ball straight off the ground and held it high above his head. With little resistance, the demon leader chucked the ball high into the air. It arced overhead, momentarily blocking out the sun.

“
No
…” Shiva gasped, looking up at the ball as it soared overhead. “…
way
.”

“I got this,” said Ash. His soul power kicked in, spurred on by his determined emotional state. In a second Ash jumped into the air and released his wings from his back. He gained altitude just in time to block the airway path of the big push ball. “
Down you go
!” he shouted, gathering soul power in his fists.

The boy interlocked his hands and smashed the giant boulder down. It flew straight back at Otozek, whose borrowed face showed not an ounce of concern. The lady devil with a demon inside stopped the ball with a single
finger
.

Was I mistaken
? Otozek couldn’t help but wonder.
Is that devil capable of more than I anticipated
?

Ash fell to the ground as Otozek dropped the ball back on the field. That little stunt had taken more out of Ash than it ever should have. Something was not right with the boy, that much he knew for sure. He couldn’t even find the strength to climb back up to his feet. Otozek stepped out from behind the ball and walked towards him.

“You ignored my warning,” said Prince Otozek. “Now I’ll have to punish you.”

Though Ash’s head felt like a siren was going off just inches from his eardrums, he didn’t back down. “Sorry, I tend not to take advice from my opponent.”

“You continue to defy me, even though you’re in such a pitiful state.”

Otozek was right. Once again, Ash’s face looked like a waterfall with all the various liquids exiting him. It was like he’d suddenly gained ultra-sensitive allergies to something. “You really take these push ball games seriously, don’t you?” he said, wiping his eyes.

Otozek moved in, intrigued by this strange devil’s behavior. Every step he took brought more pain to Ash’s face, increasing his headache until it felt like a giant was gripping his head and squeezing. He started to cough and covered his mouth with a hand, a hand that was covered in crimson when he next looked at it.

Otozek towered over Ash, staring down at him with malice. “
What is your name
?”

“Ash Kaplan,” the boy replied, still more concerned about wiping his wet face. “Don’t you know me?”

Ash
…
Kraplan
? Otozek stared at Ash’s face. Without so much hair covering the boy’s head, his face seemed more familiar somehow.

Lost in thought, Otozek spaced out as Shiva dashed in and stole the ball. She’d already rolled it across the center line with Aura and Aralia at her sides. The team skirted around Ash, who was still kneeling and looking sick. Otozek ignored them, no longer caring about the game. He was close enough to Ash now to catch his sweaty scent wafting off of him. Without a doubt, it was
human
.

“Looks like… you were too distracted… by my fame,” Ash said, gulping air between sentences. “Let’s see how your team… does without you.”

The famous Ash Kaplan
, Otozek thought to himself.
Half devil… half
human!

More memories kicked in, all associated with the various news updates Otozek’s host body had heard about the famous human in Hell. The roaring crowd reacted to the action of the game, but Otozek and Ash were too far removed to care anymore. Otozek advanced with hungry eyes staring at the boy. Meanwhile Ash struggled just to stay conscious at his enemy’s feet.

“
I’ve really found one
,” Otozek said, advancing slowly sniffing the air. “
There’s no mistaking that scent
.” A look of perplexed triumph came over the demon Prince. “
I did it. Father… I’ve really done it
!”

“
Father
?” Ash repeated, trying to focus on the stranger’s odd words while the thunderstorm raged inside his head. “What are you talking… about?”

He coughed again and more blood came out. He could see the woman’s lips moving, saying something to him but he could not hear her anymore over the deafening sound of the crowd. He tried to check on the game, to make sure his teammates were doing okay but he couldn’t see past his enemy.

In his final moments of consciousness, Ash remembered feeling terrified and helpless as he stared into the woman’s eyes. Eyes that looked like they wanted to
eat
him. Ash lost his battle with the pain. He dropped from his knees to his face on the grassy field before the demon Prince.

The ref blew his whistle. Before Otozek knew what was happening, several game officials and the devils from Ash’s team were rushing across the playing field to the boy’s side. The demon Prince took a step back, moving away from the mob of devils that surrounded the human boy, dumping water on his head and gently trying to stir him.

Prince Otozek saw his moment slip away. He felt a sting of disappointment, but it was fleeting. Though the demon team had just won the push ball tournament, they did not stay to celebrate their victory with the throngs of spectators cheering for them. The demons regrouped and fled the field, moving back into the shadows of the busy kingdom and away from prying eyes once more.

The demon prince gazed up at the Helio star, gauging his remaining time. How much longer would his father’s health hold out? He had no idea. But he’d found the human. His victory was so close already he could practically taste it.

After seeing Ash with his own eyes, the Prince of Demons decided he would not leave without securing the human for his father’s future feast.

Chapter Fifteen: New Disease

It was still abysmally hot when Ash next awoke, though the sun had already dispersed for the day. The boy’s eyes flickered as he came back into consciousness. The first thing he noticed was that he was back in his bedroom. He sat up in his bed with sweat-soaked sheets, already feeling better than he did earlier that day. A single wall candle was lit, shedding an insignificant amount of light but it was enough to see the lone figure sitting in a chair by the door.

Goddard von Gosick.

In this light, his long white hair made him look like an old man. It was only when Ash closely inspected his face that he could see the guy looked no older than a human in his mid-thirties. He was sound asleep as well, his glasses slipping so far down his nose it looked like they would fall off. Seeing this side of the man almost made him look harmless. But there was still a great rift in Ash’s mind concerning Goddard. Something the rebel Phoenix had tried to warn him about.

Do not trust Goddard
!

Ash stifled a smile and reached for the glass of water that was left on his bedside table. He drank like a greedy sponge, finishing off the entire drink in one gulp. He set it back down on the table and noticed a crusty, dried-blood handprint on the glass. When he looked up, Goddard’s head was lifted and looking at straight at him.

“Can you speak?” Goddard asked.

“I can jump out of bed and tap-dance a little jig for you if you like,” Ash replied.

“That won’t be necessary,” said Goddard. “But it’s good to see you in such high spirits once again.”

“What happened?” Ash asked. His last memory was of being on the field playing push ball. He had a vague recollection of being in intense pain.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” replied Goddard. He climbed out of the creaky wooden chair and walked to Ash’s bedside. “Those who were there said you passed out in the middle of game. Care to elaborate?”

“I wish I could,” said the boy. He raised his knees and pulled his legs close to his body, making himself small as possible. “All I was doing was talking to the lady on the other team. Then I started feeling like crap. Headache, snot-flowing, stomach cramps, dizziness. I coughed up some blood, too,” he said, holding up the remnants of his dried bloody hand.

“This sort of behavior is unusual for devils,” said Goddard. “We are not supposed to be susceptible to sickness. However, your human side might be to blame. Did you have any allergies or illnesses you may have forgotten to mention?”

Ash took a minute to think about it. “Not that I know of. Could it be something else?”

“
Perhaps
,” Goddard replied. He paused, refusing to say any more. The bedroom door swung open with a weak knock, interrupting their conversation.

“You feeling better?” said Aura as he poked his head in. Shiva wasted no time on formalities and shoved the death toucher aside on her way in.

“
About time
,” she said, as if Ash had been inconveniencing her this whole time. “That chick on the other team. You were talking to her quite a bit back there. Did she do something to you?”

“Nice to see you guys too,” said Ash. “I don’t think so. We just talked. She was kind of weird, actually.
Very
competitive. Who knows, maybe if I hadn’t passed out she might have tried something. They were pretty tough, after all.” A horrified look came over Ash as something dawned on him. “Oh no! The game! What happened?”

“We
lost
is what happened,” said Shiva.

“
Big time
,” added Aura. “Don’t be so surprised though. Those ladies whipped
everyone’s
butts. We never stood a chance.”

“They had to be cheating,” said Shiva. “They were stronger than anyone else and it didn’t even look like they were using their soul power. Something’s not right.”

“I’ve been doing some investigating since Ash’s accident this afternoon,” said Goddard. He picked up some papers off Ash’s dresser top. “Here are the sign up forms I collected from the push ball tournament. I’ve investigated that team and confirmed all their identities. I didn’t find anything suspicious about any of them.”

“Maybe my body is just having trouble readjusting to all this heat,” Ash said, feeling a little embarrassed. “I mean, it’s been like a year since I’ve come here. Maybe my human side forgot how to handle a little sunshine and hot weather.”

“You have been here for a year and three months,” Goddard corrected him. “And it is unlikely that would be the case.”

“
Oh
,” Ash replied, staring off into the darkest corner of the room.
That much time has passed already
?
I missed my birthday without even realizing it
. Then another troubling thought popped into the boy’s head. “So what’s the matter with me?”

“I do not know,” said Goddard. With a reassuring half-smile he added, “But I will do all I can to figure this out.”

“We took a vote on what game we’ll be playing tomorrow,” said Shiva. “You weren’t around, so you don’t get a vote though. We already decided.”

“It’s a relay race course,” said Aura. “Just some simple running and flying. We do that stuff all the time, so I thought it’d be pretty easy for you. Think you’ll be up for it?”

“Of course,” Ash said, not wanting to garner any more pity from his team. “I feel good now. I can handle a little race.”

“If you’re feeling better now, I will be leaving,” said Goddard. “There’s still so much festival planning to oversee. I’m afraid I’m always needed somewhere.” He turned to leave, but something on the bedside table caught his eye. “I trust you’re done with this?” he asked, picking up the empty glass of drinking water.

“Oh, yeah,” said Ash. “Thanks.”

Goddard hummed a soft response as he carried the glass to the door. He turned around just once more. “Take it easy tomorrow. If you feel any more symptoms coming on, go someplace quiet and lay down immediately. Don’t try to act tough. And one of you send for me right away.”

“We’ll watch over him,” said Aura. “If he so much as
sneezes
, he’s out of the game.”

Goddard said nothing else and exited the room, taking with him the small, bloodstained glass.

The Royal Advisor shirked his festival duties, delegating them off to any castle staffers he happened to encounter on his journey through the Royal castle. Fortunately for him his lab was in the basement, close to the Royal Guard barracks. As he zoomed by there he spotted a trio of bored-looking recruits that made perfect servants, relieving the royal advisor of his workload.

That would leave plenty of time for his experiments.

He wasted no time as he entered the lab and went straight for the thin glass slides. He scraped a few flecks of Ash’s blood off the glass and onto the clear glass slide. Goddard crossed his lab to a table with an ancient looking microscope sitting on it. He stuck the slide with Ash’s blood into the contraption and put his eyes to the viewfinder. After a minute of focusing, he took a while to study the specimen.

“
Interesting
,” he muttered to himself after a few minutes. “It wasn’t doing this before.”

Without removing his eyes from the microscope, Goddard’s hands fumbled around the drawers in front of him. He counted drawers till he found the right one and pulled it open. Inside he felt around the various objects, looking for something specific. There were extra quills and ink, blank parchment paper, empty test tubes, and the item his hands eventually snatched, a thin leather-bound case.

He set the leather case on the desk and only then did he remove his eyes from the microscope. With a snap, the case spread open revealing rows of glass slides. They each held a smear of dark liquid and were assigned a date. He wrote the date on his latest slide as well, and then covered it and added it to the case.

He’d been working on his collection since day one of the project, ever since he first brought Ash to Hell. He’d taken blood samples from the boy whenever the opportunity presented itself. For over a year now he’d been studying the half-human half-devil boy, eagerly waiting to see what changes might occur as Ash grew.

This latest sample showed something alarming. Ash’s blood cells were doing something Goddard had never seen before.

Degradation
,
decay
, he wrote in his journal.
Never before have I seen such disarray at such a small scale. It’s like the boy’s cells are at war with each other. Why now
?
He’s been stable for so long, I’d ruled out the possibility of a relapse. What could have caused this new disease so suddenly
?
Was there an unknown catalyst, or could this have simply always been the boy’s fate
?
If his body continues breaking down like this, he won’t even make it to the winter.

Goddard spent some time thinking about the catalyst. He had good reason to believe that something outside of his control caused Ash’s instability. He checked his sample collection again. He popped slide #1 into his microscope, from the day he first met Ash. He moved down the line of slides, checking each one and realizing that none of them showed as much turmoil as his most recent sample. His previously most recent slide was from three months ago when Ash had gotten cut during a sword training exercise. The boy thought Goddard was awfully nice back then offering to help clean and bandage the wound.

Goddard tried to recall if anything significant had happened between then and now. It wasn’t easy. Goddard struggled to recall every terrible job he’d assigned his team and every demon they had fought. The list was long and Goddard’s memory hazy. One big event stood out among the rest though. The greater demon that attacked at the Devil’s Duel tournament. Ash’s first encounter with a demon of such a high caliber.

Come to think of it
, Goddard realized,
that is when Ash’s symptoms first started. Could his interaction with a greater demon have caused his body to react this way
?
If that’s the case, I’d hate to see what happens if he encounters another one
.
We can only hope it doesn’t speed up the degradation of his body
.

If I don’t figure out how to fix him soon, this could really be the end of my experiments.

And Ash Kaplan
.