Marbas and Gamigin (1)
Lying on the bed, Marbas rolled a few black dice in her palm.
How dull.
As she idly turned the dice, her vision held two scenes at once: the broad chamber around her, and a sunlit training field under clear skies.
The first was what her true body saw. The second was the view through her avatar.
Ever since the contract with Baek Sejin, Marbas had lived with this dual sight.
It was no real inconvenience. She was a Transcendent Being, after all. Everything about her stood apart from ordinary humans—beyond comparison entirely.
In modern human terms, I suppose this is like running dual monitors.
Human progress had its fascinating sides. To have come so far in the few centuries she had gone without a contract… Marbas felt a faint regret for those long years of absence. She already knew the full history of their advancement, of course, but witnessing and feeling it firsthand would not have been so bad.
Just like now.
Through her avatar’s eyes she watched her contractor, Baek Sejin, sparring with the others. Three against one—Sejin alone against the rest. Marbas lay quietly on the bed and savored the spectacle.
Sejin reinforced only his body with mana while the other three freely used their abilities. Even with Kim Gabyul’s mana—so strongly opposed to black mana—binding him, he moved with easy grace, slipping past every strike from Seong Hyeon and Lee Jiwoo.
Something to stroke would be nice right about now.
Perhaps I should make that nine-tailed fox into a familiar. Of course I’d have to discuss it with her master first… but there’s no downside, so he’ll probably agree.
When the spar ended in Sejin’s victory, Marbas banished the black dice from her hand and rose smoothly from the bed.
It’s been a while. Time to pay a visit to Gamigin’s domain.
Lately Baek Sejin had been getting tangled up with one Transcendent Being after another. Most of those encounters ended without incident, or even left their contractors well-disposed toward him. Gamigin, however, was a slightly different case.
If Marbas let her guard down and Sejin died, that would be troublesome. Watching him had become her sole amusement of late.
She recalled their first meeting. A sudden summons from the human world had drawn her there, and she had found a man, a demon, and a corpse. The moment she arrived she grasped the situation. Back then Sejin had been wary of her—wary of demons in general. So, for a bit of sport, she had applied a little pressure. Watching him reluctantly accept the contract had been the most fun she’d had in ages.
He suited her tastes perfectly. Born with black mana, his affinity for dark magic needed no comment. His looks, his speech, his temperament—everything aligned with what she liked. So she had forced the contract through even at some cost to herself.
She had never once regretted it. A little power scraped away meant nothing; a scratch on a vast iceberg bothers no one.
Didn’t they say Earth was in danger from global warming these days?
For a fleeting moment she thought of Ha Ye-song, president of Sejin’s magic club, and the vice-president Park Min-seo—then the thought vanished just as quickly.
If Sejin died, hunting down his soul again would be a chore. Better to prevent the illness than treat it after the fact.
When was the last time I saw Gamigin? A few thousand years ago?
She walked to the mirror. The reflection showed a woman of decadent allure—black hair with secret two-tone gold, skin gleaming white in the dim room. Lately human forms and fashion had become the trend among demons and angels alike. Marbas was not the sort to refuse a trend.
“I suppose it’s time I put on a proper suit again.”
Muttering to herself, she raised her mana. Black power surged up and wrapped her body in an instant. When it vanished as swiftly as it had come, an elegant women’s suit of refined colors stood in its place. The mirror now held a decadent beauty dressed in high fashion.
This should do.
Marbas turned from the mirror and walked. With each step space split open, revealing a new realm before her eyes. She stepped into it and kept walking. In no time she stood before Gamigin’s territory.
“What brings you here?”
Gamigin’s voice arrived as if she stood right beside her.
At the highest terrace of the vast castle rising in the heart of Gamigin’s sprawling domain, their eyes met. The two demons were separated by an enormous distance, yet they recognized each other without the slightest difficulty.
Marbas gave a dry laugh and spoke.
“Must we always have a reason to visit each other? That stings a little.”
“What are we to each other, exactly?”
“Comrades who once carved our way across the battlefield together, are we not? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that day.”
“…I remember. How could I forget?”
“Exactly. A brush with total annihilation doesn’t come around so easily.”
Marbas smiled, holding Gamigin’s gaze across the distance.
“…Let’s drop that subject.”
“Hahaha! Very well. Then I’ll come in.”
Laughing, Marbas swept a hand through the air and split space open. She stepped through the rift and arrived in an instant on the topmost terrace where Gamigin waited.
Gamigin stood there in the form of a young girl, roughly 145 cm tall—a considerable difference from Marbas. Hair the blue of the human world’s seas spilled all the way to the floor, and a pair of white conical horns rose from either side of her head. At a glance she looked thoroughly adorable. If even a demon like Marbas thought so, ordinary humans would find her far cuter still.
Yet something about her expression carried a distinctly bratty edge.
What do the humans call this again? Mesugaki, was it?
Thinking that, Marbas offered her greeting.
“It’s been a while, Gamigin.”
“It has. You’ve… changed your look?”
As she spoke, Gamigin tilted her head up and down, scanning Marbas from head to toe.
“You’re one to talk, Gamigin. You’ve changed just as much—nothing left of the old you but those white horns.”
“Well, a lot of time’s passed. Change happens.”
At the shameless reply Marbas let out another dry laugh.
“Do you know how many years it’s been since we last spoke face to face like this?”
Gamigin shrugged and walked toward the door. It opened of its own accord at her approach.
“Dunno. Two hundred years or so?”
“Not so long after all, then.”
Marbas followed her inside from the terrace. They settled on the sofas facing each other and slowly savored their wine.
Swirling her glass to catch the aroma, Marbas glanced at Gamigin and spoke playfully.
“You look so young—shouldn’t you lay off the alcohol?”
Gamigin snorted.
“I’ve existed longer than the history of this wine.”
Marbas smiled quietly at the retort and took a sip. Watching her drink, Gamigin spoke again.
“So. Why the sudden visit after all this time?”
There was a quiet pressure in her voice. Marbas leaned back against the sofa.
“I already told you, didn’t I? We aren’t the sort who need a reason to come and go.”
“Yeah… I guess not…”
Gamigin set her glass on the table, crossed her arms, and leaned back. Her head tipped downward.
Marbas watched her in silence, still smiling.
“So there’s no reason?”
Gamigin lifted her head and met the smiling eyes of Marbas. Marbas closed her eyes, drained the rest of her wine, and grinned.
“Of course there is.”
Gamigin made a face of pure disbelief and finished her own glass. She refilled it, then jerked her chin at Marbas as if to say, Spit it out.
“Lately it seems you’ve been having some fun in the human world.”
Gamigin chewed on the words for a moment, then slowly smiled.
“Oh? And what exactly am I supposed to have done?”
Seeing that smile, Marbas’s own deepened. She gazed at the ceiling for a beat before speaking.
“You can do whatever you like—I don’t particularly care.”
“Then why—”
“I’m not trying to stop you. But it would be wise to keep it moderate and pull out when the time comes.”
Cutting Gamigin off mid-sentence, Marbas finished speaking and leisurely drank her wine.