Crozz Seraph's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Crozz had the stage now. He did not have the ritual. He stood alone on the Moonlit Idol Stage, inside the circle etched into the floor. His father had known the banishing chant. His father had died before teaching it. Crozz knew the shape of the thing and none of the words. If he lit the circle wrong, the demon lord wouldn't leave his drummer. It would jump. Into Kita. Into whoever stood closest. Kita Choi climbed the steps two at a time. She dropped a cracked leather book on the floor. "Your father's. I kept it. I hoped you'd never need it." He opened it. Half the pages were water-stained to nothing. The chant was gone. Only a drawing of a hand remained, fingers spread, thumb folded in. "It's incomplete," Crozz said. "I can't run a banishing from half a page." "Then we test it," Kita said. "On something small. Before forty thousand people watch it fail." That was when the demon in the pop star's body walked into the light. Azure Hellsong leaned on the rail where Crozz's new drummer sat tuning her kit. Hana kept her hands moving, red hair falling over her eyes, pretending she heard nothing. Azure smiled at the broken book. "Your father's gestures were right," Azure said. "His words were wrong. He got himself killed with those words." Crozz kept his face still. "You'd teach me how to banish your own kind." "I'd teach you to banish a rival." Azure's tail flicked. "The lord in your bandmates isn't my friend. And I want my show. A botched ritual burns this stage. Burns me with it." Kita's hand found her blade. "Don't trust a word." "Then prove me," Azure said. She lifted a hand and folded her thumb, the shape from the drawing. "Call something small. A shadow-beast. I'll show you the real binding." Crozz looked at Hana's drumsticks. He looked at the circle. He chose to test it. He traced the marks and spoke the words he did know, the broken ones. Shadow pooled at the circle's edge. A wolf rose out of it, black fur lit with neon lines, fangs glowing. It snarled and lunged at Kita. "Now," Azure said. "Thumb in. Say it with me." She gave him the words his father never finished. Crozz repeated them and drove his folded hand down. The circle flared blue. The wolf twisted, shrank, and vanished into smoke. The floor marks dimmed. Nothing burned. Kita lowered her blade, breathing hard. "It worked." "It worked," Crozz said. He knew the chant now. He knew the gestures. He could banish the lord without losing a single bandmate. Azure stepped into the circle beside him. "You needed me," she said. "Remember that when the night comes." Crozz had his ritual. He had also just proven, in front of the demon, that he couldn't run it without her.