Chp.29: Inpu

The spirit emerged from the cloud of sand and dust, finally showing himself in all his form. He was at least two meters tall and had little clothing, based solely on a few jewels and bracelets around his arms and neck and a long white and yellow robe that went from his waist to his ankles. He had the body of a human being, but his skin was very dark, almost completely brown, much like wet earth, and all over his body he had tattoos that looked like microscopic rivers of gold and silver that studded his skin with strange symbols. The hands were also those of a man, but they had gray fingers that were strangely long and ended in long, sharp, curved claws, similar to those of a dog. The most singular thing, however, was the head: enormous, almost disproportionate to the rest of the body, it had the shape of a wolf or in any case of a very feral dog. Just like dogs, he kept his mouth open constantly and as a result sharp teeth and a very long tongue could be glimpsed under his lips. The ears were those of a canid, but longer and thinner, and pointed constantly upwards, not moving as those of normal dogs did. The entire head was covered in black hair which grew thicker as one approached the tip of the muzzle. Finally, the eyes were white, like a sun-bleached bone. In his right hand he held a strange golden object and with each step the sand rose and swirled, as if it wanted to escape from him.

"Answer me, mortals" the spirit said. His voice was that of a normal human being, but it had a more animalistic timbre, and there was the background sound of constant panting, just like a dog breathing. "Who are you, who dares to hit me? Tell me your names and state your motives. If your motives are justifiable, then I will forgive your act and let you walk away unharmed. If not, then at least I will know who I killed If you keep quiet, I'll consider it a further act of insolence and I'll eliminate you anyway without bothering to give your faces a name I need to remember"

"Why should we tell you our names, when you show up here without even telling us yours?" Corgorin asked mockingly. Any mortal would have thought twice before speaking that way to a spirit, a being of considerable power, but the dragons were certainly not intimidated by his words. "One who poses as the bearer of so much morality should set a good example. Come on, tell us who you are, and why you're here and waiting for the right moment to attack our brother, instead of just sitting back in your goddess realm where you should belong"

"I see. So this is why you are attacking me, fear for the life of the one who is blood of your blood" the spirit murmured. "I admire your courage and daring, and I respect your motives. Therefore, I will grant your request. The name concocted for me by my goddess is Inpu. I am here to serve her will acting under orders from my current summoner. I have no enmity with you. Despite your arrogant words, I recognize how important it is for you to protect a brother, therefore I won't take action against you unless you give me a reason"

Those words, however veiled and apparently respectful, were a clear threat: the spirit was practically telling him that they could leave, but that if they tried to stop him there would be unpleasant consequences. "If you do not wish to have enmity with us, then let us remain on good terms" ​​Serengal said. "Go away, and neither my sister nor I will do anything to you. We have no reason. This is not your battle. Go back to your goddess and simply tell her that defeat was certain, for believe me, it is. Your summoner will not he can win, and neither can you. Or if you can't go alone, then go far away, where you can't hear your summoner's voice calling to you, and wait for my brother to put that man out of the way. He's not worth dying for"

"Death is nothing but a state of affairs. I don't fear it and I have no reason to fear it" Inpu replied. "I won't abandon my summoner. A spirit's role is to serve its master as his weapon. A weapon doesn't flee in the midst of battle, it has no power to; so long as its wielder wishes it to strike, no matter how much the blade is already damaged and about to break, it will always continue to strike the opponent. Therefore, don't think that you can break my will with these irrelevant words"

Serengal narrowed her eyes at those words. She wasn't Haku and she wasn't able to gather thousands of information from a simple speech, but she was still a dragon and her intelligence was above the average of mortal beings, and she could therefore notice some nuances in the spirit's words. Inpu had said that death didn't scare him and that he would keep fighting even if he was about to break. This meant that spirits weren't immortal. Until now the dragons hadn't been able to answer that question, since all the spirits they had faced had been defeated simply by exhausting their divine power and then sending them back to the realm of their goddess, consequently they did not know if they could really be killed . Even Isaac and Maldor hadn't been able to give an exhaustive answer, since even if the evocation of spirits was a branch of magic, there was still talk of minor spirits and therefore with different characteristics from those of major spirits, and also in that case the information about it was very imprecise. But now, Serengal was sure there was a good chance that spirits could somehow be killed as well; otherwise Inpu would have said something like 'death isn't a danger to the servants of the goddess' or some other long-winded sentence. Even though there was still the possibility that Inpu had simply expressed himself badly, Serengal was optimistic and thought that the spirits really weren't immortal as some believed, but that they could be killed. This was flattering, because if spirits weren't immortal, then it was probable that other supernatural creatures like demons, ghosts, and angels weren't either, and perhaps therefore their gods weren't either.

An annoyed voice interrupted her thoughts. "Seriously, how absurd are you talking!?" Corgorin snapped suddenly. "Dude, I don't know where you think you are, but this is the real world, not a stage, and we're not playing a drama! You don't need to use two hundred words to express a point! Just say 'no, I'm sorry but I'm staying here, it's my duty'! This way you waste much less breath and above all avoid wasting our time, because I don't know about you, but I have better things to do in my life than stay here and listen to your pantomime! Let's do this, make an effort to use less than twenty words each time you speak, so I don't fall asleep while you're still in mid-speak!"

Inpu was silent for a moment, then he looked at Serengal: "You, who are clearly the boss, answer me: does this chatty and irreverent creature speak for you?"

"Hey! Who said she's the boss!?" Corgorin exclaimed in irritation.

Serengal ignored her sister. "Each of us speaks on behalf of the other, and therefore this is the answer to your question: you set foot in a battle that does not belong to you and you dared to threaten the life of one of our brothers, therefore we will eliminate you as the intruder who you are"

Inpu nodded. "I understand. So we're in conflict" he said. "Such a pity. It was not my wish to kill you. But it is my duty to do my summoner's bidding, and nothing in this world could ever break my will"

"You will find that our will equals, indeed, surpasses yours!" Serengal snarled as she moved into attack stance.

"Brave and audacious words, worthy of a true warrior. But unfortunately, they are only words" Inpu replied, then raised the strange object in his hand, which lit up with golden light.

That object was made exclusively of gold and almost resembled a key: it was in the shape of a 'T', with a very long vertical line which ended in a point, and the horizontal one which was much shorter and more massive; in the middle of the horizontal line there was a hook to which was tied a silver string through which Inpu held the object. When it lit up, the light that was generated was such that the sand directly beneath it heated up so much that it turned red and Serengal and Corgorin were dazzled for a moment. When they were able to see again, they found that the strange 'T' shaped key had changed into a long spear with a golden tip and an all-black handle, formed of a material similar to onyx, and on the handle of which were engraved numerous symbols covered with silver. The golden tip, however, was strange: instead of following the line of the handle, like normal spears, it was angled about forty-five degrees, pointing up rather than straight. Finally, on the opposite side of the handle, two very small sharp protuberances had formed, also of onyx. The entire spear seemed to pulsate with a strange energy, as if an inextinguishable current ran through it constantly trying desperately to get out.

Inpu stood motionless for a moment, then he moved his spear as if making a thrust; the sand around him rose unnaturally, swirling on itself forming a small vortex, which in turn began to revolve around the spirit. Serengal and Corgorin gritted their teeth; while they'd expected that spirit to have some kind of control over the sand, since it would have been silly for Carrion to summon anything else given their surroundings, it was rather annoying to find they hadn't been wrong. Considering that they were in a desert, a spirit who was able to subjugate the sand had an undoubted advantage. Inpu at that point moved his spear again, but this time more decisively and clearly in the direction of the two dragons. The swirling sand stopped swirling around him and hurled itself at them with all its violence.

Serengal and Corgorin did not wait for the vortex to reach them: they split up and ran in opposite directions. However, instead of pursuing either of them, the sand vortex split itself in two and pursued them both. As they struck, the two dragonesses clearly felt the fury of millions of grains of sand crashing against their scales with incredible speed. Their scales protected them from harm, but this clearly limited their ability to see, hear and smell. Inpu was clearly using that trick to disorient them as he prepared the real attack. The two dragons then pretended not to know what to do and stopped, but paid close attention to the vibrations of the ground thanks to their paws. Corgorin was the one who noticed the danger: as soon as she perceived that something was moving in front of her, she jumped to the side and narrowly avoided a huge mass of sand that was traveling against her at incredible speed, and that if it hit her would probably send her sprawling.

"Excellent reflexes. Maybe your mouth is too big and you lack manners, but you are an excellent fighter" Inpu said looking at her. "I have to admit that…uh?"

While he was busy watching Corgorin, Serengal's tail came upon him; Inpu parried it in time using his spear, but Corgorin used the opportunity to jump on him and strike him with her claws in the shoulder. They created three long wounds; they were nothing compared to what those claws would have done to a mortal as if a person had been struck by them with such violence they would have been completely eviscerated, but still the spirit had been wounded. Inpu's gaze hardened. "You... how did you free yourself from the vortex? Uh... I understand" he said, noticing that some drops of water were dripping from the dragon's mouth. "You sprinkled water on the sand weighing it down and forcing it back to the ground. I assume you have a supply of water in that bag around your neck. Very clever"

"I told you. Our will surpasses yours" Serengal growled. "Don't think you can beat us with these little tricks"

"Than I will start to get serious" Inpu replied moving his spear. The wound on his shoulder glowed with a faint glow and closed up as good as new again, and the sand began to swirl around him again.