Compost

"Risus."

As I speak the name of the lesser god, I feel my surroundings disappear. But their warmth remains. Slowly opening my eyes, I glance beside me. The outlines of Elizabeth and Vol are here. With me.

"Seb... Where are we..?" I hear Vol ask.

Looking around, I find that I don't know, myself. This isn't the void that Not Gaia contacted me in, nor is it the farmland overlook where the smiling Risus brought me. We're somewhere else entirely.

It's dark, but the outline of the area is something like a scrapheap. The ground feels more like thick mud than metal, though. There were a lot of farms around, so maybe a compost heap, then? It's almost pitch black, though. Is it already night? Do they have night here? And why does the air feel so weird?

I try to get to my feet, having forgotten about my terrible, burnt state.

"Sebastian," Elizabeth says, catching me, "how are we here?"

"I need to see him - Risus - he must be around here."

Unless that wasn't his name and I messed something up? No, it must have been. It brought us up here, after all. So he must be here somewhere.

Something makes a weird squelching sound. Almost slithering.

"What is that??" Vol asks, his voice lowered.

"Vol, can we get some light," Elizabeth asks, still holding me up.

"Right."

I see Vol drawing thin lines in the air, constructing the spell in a few seconds.

"Luxnert."

In front of Vol, a small bubble of light appears, lighting up the-

The-

Oh.

All around us, long, thick vines move over and under one another, forming a shape something like a sphere. A quick glance tells me that the sphere isn't centered around us, since we're standing on the ground. It's centered on something just a bit outside of my view. Something above us. I look up.

I hear a sharp intake of breath from one of my friends, though I can't tell from whom. Apparently, they've seen him, too.

A man with a smiling mask is suspended in mid-air, held aloft by the many slimy vines curling around his body. His legs and arms all seem to be forcibly bent in all the wrong directions, every limb twitching and spasming as the thick vines curl around him.

Had he been a human, I would've thought him dead. A lifeless corpse. But this is a god we're talking about. A lesser god, true. But a god nevertheless.

I lift my arm to look at the manacaster, intending to cast a spell to free him.

But the manacaster isn't there.

On the wrist of my right arm, where the manacaster is supposed to be, is nothing more than a large, red scorch mark, seared into my skin.

"Vol, what did you do with the manacaster," I ask, restraining my irritation.

"I'm not sure how you managed it, but..."

When Vol hesitates, Elizabeth continues for him.

"You melted it. It was fused to your arm."

Something in my expression must have shown how I felt because Vol continued in a rush after her, as if to defend their actions.

"The engraved spells were mixed together. If something malfunctioned and the AM-store was activated, there was no telling what it might do."

"It was the safest option," Elizabeth finishes. They both look at me, hesitantly.

I can't help but wonder if they discussed how to handle this beforehand.

I would tell them that I was impressed if I wasn't holding myself back from yelling at them.

To think that I would lose my only weapon. Once again, I find myself defenseless. How reckless I've become. How weak. How pathetic.

I take a few deep breaths as my gaze locks onto the writhing figure of Risus. It hasn't even been a minute, but he's already looking much worse. I can see cracks starting to form along his mask. I wonder what it takes to kill a god.

"Vol. Any spells you can use to get him free?" I ask, my jaw clenched.

"Well, I *could* cast a spell, but maybe we should let Elizabeth try cutting them?" he says, looking to Elizabeth.

She nods and hands me over to Vol. She raises her sword and slashes at one of the fully stretched vines.

Nothing happens. No magic shields. No metal armor. No nothing. The blade just stops. Elizabeth hacks at it a few more times, but each time is as futile as the last.

I look over at Vol, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at the pointless suggestion.

"R-right, I'll just... cast a spell," he says, nervously.

"Good idea."

Vol thinks for a moment and then begins to move his hands around in front of him, forming the shapes for some sort of spell.

"Elizabeth, you can stop now," I tell her.

She does so.

"I know you're not happy about the manacaster, but there's no need for you to be rude, Sebastian," she replies.

That's...

"It was your fault, you know. If you hadn't attacked that monster or if you hadn't cast that spell, you would still have it."

I can feel my heart pounding in anger. Because. After all. She's right.

Never, in all my lives, have I made mistakes as severe as I have in this one. Not when I starved to death on the street. Not when I mistook my foe for a friend and was left for dead by the traitor. Not when I left Sofia behind.

No mistake is more fatal than getting overconfident. I proved that.

Now I'm here; burnt to a crisp, stuck in a cage of vines with my two best friends, and trying to save a god from being crushed to death by another god.

And how are we trying to solve this?? By slashing at vines and casting spells, which are bound to be futile. These are gods. Nothing Vol can cast will be strong enough to get Risus free. If only we could cast celestial magic. If only we could wield their weapons against them.

If-

Then, like a bolt of lightning, something clicks in my head.

An impossible idea.

Surely, there's no way.

But then again...

"Vol..." I mutter, almost to myself, "...do you have Elizabeth's old sword on you?"