TW: Demon!Rythian

The circle was all set. Everything was a neat as it was ever going to be. Building this room had taken much too long and Lalna was frankly annoyed at how intricate the symbols had to be. Nano seemed to be able to do this so easily. Why couldn't he? It could be down to the fact that he still has his large electrical gloves on from earlier when he was tinkering with the wiring of the compound. He totally didn't keep them on because of the fact that the flux was starting to spread there too. Not at all...

When he had finally finished he flew up to inspect his work, twiddling with his jetpack straps. He had a vague memory of a different method of flying that didn't require a reliance on electricty, from a long time ago, but the wings were a nice aesthetic touch. The circles were all semi-perfect, keeping their general supposed shape but wavering from time to time. He felt as if it represented him somehow.

Getting into witchery was something Lalna never expected to do, but he took it upon himself to understand what his apprentice was learning about so that he could then become better than her at it. What was an apprentice's job if not to learn from a master? He can't have her knowing more than he does and upsetting this universal balance.

He finally had everything that he needed, bar a demon heart. Those things were annoying and very hard to get hold of, if you didn't have bear traps. It seemed a touch like cheating, with the battle being over within a few seconds of mindless slashing rather than an actual battle. Demon hearts were needed for so many things the more that he learnt that he needed just a way to farm them. He never really spared a thought towards what he was summoning, seeing them more as livestock rather than actual things. The book that Nano had given him said that demons were once people, but had given themselves over to darkness, whatever 'darkness' was. Lalna just huffed nonchalantly when he read that and continued with what he was doing.

Everything for the summoning was placed into the circle, the ender pearl, both attuned stones, some refined evil (which gave Lalna an uneasy feeling, something he would never admit), and some blaze powder. Finally, he checked his altar, making sure everything was still in place and Dinnerbone (that poor animal) hadn't knocked anything off of it again like he had done several times in the past. Finally content with everything, Lalna touched the central sigil and felt the power from the altar flow through him into the circle. The foci, as the items were apparently called (Lalna hated all of these fancy words, he already had enough science to remember without having new thing clutter up his mind), were absorbed into the magic, acting as the conduit for the heavy magic that was about to happen.

Lalna flew up again to observe the magic taking place. It was still beautiful to see despite seeing it so often. Everything felt electric and calm at the same time, like the ocean preparing for a storm. He couldn't deny that it was an amazing feeling and he understood why Nano loved it so much. He didn't love it enough to exchange it for science, though, that was too precious to him.

A purple cloud started to appear in the middle of the circles, pulsing with magic and electricity. Lalna drew his sword, proud of the craftsmanship that he had displayed. It was a great weapon that suited his fighting style perfectly for the moment, light and fast, giving enemies lots of tiny nicks to weaken them before going in for the final blow. Lalna swung it around a few times, appreciating the balance, whilst a figure started to materialise in the fog. Lalna dove in as soon as he saw a solid shape through the haze but stopped when he heard... screaming?

Sword still raised, Lalna paused to see a cowering but semi-familar figure standing before him. The demon's lanky arms were pulled around it's head but it had bandages around their knuckles. A scarf was whipping in what remained of the ethereal wind the cloud seemed to summon and had two very familiar eyes staring at the scientist.

"Ryth-Rythian?!"

"Lalna?!"

Rythian immediately stopped cowering and stood up to his full height. He was taller than Lalna quite substantially and was never as grateful for this difference as he was in that moment.

"What the? How the? Demon summoning and you? Wha-?" Lalna landed gently, shaking his head in disbelief and sheathing his sword.

Rythian skirted round the bear traps and started looking at the area he had been summoned into. Foliage and animals dominated the small area. A small green hut was off to the side, covered in Spanish moss and looking weirdly homely despite its small stature. A deer was walking upside downwhich caught his attention but then the mage shook his head, attributing it to Lalna's crazy science. The whole glade (he supposed that was the most accurate term for where he was standing) gave off this gentle thrum of magic and happiness. Lalna had made a good home for himself.

When he finally turned to look at the man, Rythian stopped with his pacing. Purple skirted around his arms and across his face, leaving a sour taste in the mage's mouth. Flux was something to always be careful of and it seems that the scientist's curiosity had gotten the better of him. Rythian walked over to him and clasped the shorter man's face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the taint there, tutting as he mused on how this happened. A small bit lingered on his thumb but he wiped it on the bandage of the opposite hand where it magically disappeared. Lalna under this scrutiny had turned a shade akin to Panda Labs and flustered his way out of Rythian's grasp.

"What are you doing? Rythian! Why are you here?! I summoned a demon not you!" The scientist's mind was going a mile a minute, thinking about the events that just transpired. Why did Rythian grab his face like that? They knew each other in a merely professional way. What was with this guy,seriously?

Rythian met Lalna's eyes, seeing that there was none of the mutual affection, and dropped his hands. This was not his Lalna. This was another one, his was elsewhere apparently. He sighed: it was too good to be true. Hoping that his Lalna would summon him was a silly dream, but one that he had anyway when he felt his body start to break apart in the way that it alway did when he was summoned.
Rythian adjusted his shirt, pulling at it so that it lay as straight as possible and pulled himself up to his full height, "Just like you said, you summoned a demon," he gestured to himself with both hands matter-of-factly, "so one came."

Lalna was still dumbfounded. "You're a-..." the scientist started pacing back and forth in an attempt to try and calm his thoughts. "This explains.. a lot actually." Rythian was always one for being pensive and secluded, no wonder he had shut himself away with a secret this big.

"Explains a lot? I never thought that it was that obvious. The other Lalna knew," Rythian returned to his looking over the grove, easily becoming disinterested in this Lalna clone. This one was stupid enough to mess with flux. His Lalna would never do that, his Lalna knew that something that powerful was off limits.

"The other Lalna? The one prancing around with the blue robes and Sjin tagging along? He locked me up in this stupid prison miles away from here just because we look the same!" Lalna nearly shuddered at the memory. Thank the gods he wasn't working alone like he used to do, before Nano came around. Without her, he would still be rotting in that purple hell hole.

Rythian stopped his pontificating to stop dead in his tracks and looked at this Lalna. Prison? What prison? What had his Lalna been doing?

"Well, I still need a demon heart you know."

"Well, duh, why else would I be summoned here otherwise." Rythian waved his hand in a disinterested manner and a heart in a small jar appeared. It emitted an ethereal glow that made the hairs on the scientist's neck stand up. Lalna reached for it, only for Rythian to bring it around his back like Lalna was a child trying to reach for some forbidden sweets. "Ah, not so fast. I need to know more about the other you." The real you, Rythian wanted to say, the one from all those years ago.

It seemed like a decent trade. The book Nano gave him said something about demons wanting a trade for their hearts. Normally it was something precious, like a diamond or an emerald but it seems like this one, like Rythian, wanted information. This was something that Lalna was more than happy to comply if it meant that he didn't have to pay.

"Well, it's quite a ways away from here. I can take you to a portal That Sjin has at his farm that will take you there. But when you're there you can see what's up. From what little I saw, he really has it out for you. Undesirable Number One he's called you. The pair of them have given each other stupid titles like Super Nintendo and calling what they're doing the Magic Police or something like that. It's kinda sad to be honest." Lalna ran his gloved fingers through his hair at recalling the memory. It had been a while since the event but it didn't mean that he could remember it fondly.

Rythian could feel himself starting to get angry. Lalna had the audacity to come after him? After everything the two of them had been through, he wanted to attack him. \there was going to be hell to pay.

"Take me to the portal and you'll get your stupid heart." Rythian's eyes, once a cool blue, were now solidly black. Lalna took this change to mean that he shouldn't argue and immediately took to the air, pulling his glider out of his pack. It was a short flight to Sjin's farm and he didn't want to lose any more time than what was already lost. Rythian took to the sky seemingly of his own will, and Lalna didn't want to question anything anymore. All he needed was this stupid demon heart and now it turns out that he actually knows a demon and this specific demon has a vendetta against a clone of him. How did his life get so strange?

When they arrived at the portal, Rythian threw the jar to Lalna and stood facing the circle.

"So I can go now? I think I'm just gonna go now..." Lalna slinked off back towards Panda Labs, afraid of what Rythian would do next.

Rythian sighed as he let his guard down again. His eyes had returned to their usual blue now that he no longer needed to intimidate the other Lalna. Why had this happened to him? He needed to speak to his Lalna. He needed to clear everything up again.

With a wave of his hand the keystone sparked into life, casing a blue portal to form within the circle. Rythian rolled his shoulders back, determined not to look anything less than he was, and walked through.

Credit to allhailcrilledcheesus