The Demons of Tartarus

Chapter 11
X785

Mephiles walked back into the Tartarus guild hall, very pleased with the body he just acquired.

"Where have you been Mephiles?" asked Mard Geer.

"I sensed a high amount of magical power in this new body, so I ditched my old one," answered Mephiles.

"That explains why I found a corpse in your room."

"So who's the body this time?" asked Torafusa.

"His name's Jason Gaebolg," answered Mephiles. "He's an apprentice of Grimoire Heart guild master Hades.  He uses Weapon-Construct Magic, Amaterasu, and even Katsu.  His magical power levels are off the charts.  I wasn't even sure if he was actually a human when I first sensed him."

"You always had to rely on the power of others Mephiles," said Sayla. "No wonder you're the weakest Etherious of us all."

"You're just upset because Lord Zeref made the two of us too similar, not to mention my inhabited bodies can't be controlled by your curse."

Sayla was taken aback by this comment. "Well your curse can't affect any of the Etherious either!  You have to rely on the power of lower life forms in order to do anything of use."

"Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe-" Mephiles suddenly dropped to his knees.

"Mephiles?"

"You can't have it," said Jason.

"What's going on?" asked Torafusa.

"It would appear that Mephiles' curse is starting to fail," answered Mard.

"But his curse has never failed before!"

Mard smiled. "Looks like Mephiles bit off more than he could chew.  This boy is too powerful for him."

"I'm no boy," Jason got to his feet. "I'm a legal adult!" He made a finger gun at Mard. "White Bullet!" A beam of white light came out of his finger gun and pierced Mard through the chest, a look of utter shock etched into his face. Torafusa attempted to cut him with his blade arms. "White Blades!" Jason created two small white blades and cut off Torafusa's arm. He proceeded to use an upward slash to cut him in half. "How?" He muttered as his body separated and fell apart.

Mard got to his feet holding his wound, seething with rage"Sayla!"

"I've been trying, I can't control him because Mephiles is still inside."

Jason pointed a finger gun at Mard.

"Let's not be hasty."

"White..."

"Wait, why kill me when you can join me?"

Jason didn't lower his finger gun. "What do you mean?"

"Well you seem to be leaving one of our comrades tied up," said Mard. "And you seem like the kind of quality mage we'd need.  How would you like to join the Tartarus guild?"