The Soulbound Sorceress: A YA Urban Fantasy Adventure and Dark Covenant Universe Novel
The Soulbound Sorceress
The Soulbound Sorceress Origins Book Four
M.W. Arita
The Soulbound Sorceress
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The Soulbound Sorceress Origins Book Four
A Dark Covenant Universe Novel
Originally published as the Demi-Girl: The Last Aeon Series
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M. W. Arita
The Soulbound Sorceress is a work of fiction.
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The characters, stories, and worlds portrayed in this novel are creations of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
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Copyright © M.W. Arita
Cover by Yukapi III
Cover copyright © Aeonian Entertainment
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The unauthorized copying, distribution, or sale of this book is an infringement on the author's intellectual property. If you wish to use material from this book, please contact the author at ariauthor@mwarita.com.
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First U.S. Edition, February 2021
Version 2.0
The Dark Covenant Universe and related content are copyright © 2019 by M.W. Arita and Aeonian Entertainment.
Dedication
To Family, Friends, My Wonderful Partner Michael,
My First Fan Sandra,
And All Current and Future Readers Everywhere.
Let Us Have the Courage to Chase Our Dreams
And Change the World.
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I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my editor, Amanda, and Alex, Diego, DeOnn, Drew, Justin, and Fan Commander Korravai for their insight, expertise, and encouragement that made this book possible.
The Story So Far…
Alice’s team splits apart when she and Terri argued over what to do about Claire. Desperate to save her friend, Alice departs on a journey with Susie by her side. Along the way, she reunites with Dead Ted, who is now inhabiting Alice’s yo-yo.
The team brings Claire’s body to the hidden Tengu village, hoping they will treat one of their own kind. Instead, the Tengu king tries to dispose of Claire’s body and ambushes Alice. She’s saved by the reappearance of her crush, Ace.
After fending off the Tengu king and his followers, Alice meets with Fuchi Kamuy, the head goddess of the Ainu pantheon. She offers to restore Claire’s life under one condition: Alice must solve three strange cases in Hokkaido on the goddess’s behalf.
Each case pits Alice against dangerous gods and monsters native to these wintery lands. She manages to defeat them, and even recovers a Death Stone. However, during her journey, she encounters Aoko, a deadly assassin from the same organization Claire works for.
Alice is gravely wounded from the battle, but is saved by the unlikeliest of sources: her evil sorceress mother, Daji. Alice expects a trap, but instead, shares a heartfelt and tender moment with her mother. Daji reveals the one weakness that can lead to her defeat, and helps Alice obtain a magic hammer that can change the size and shape of objects at will.
At the end of her Hokkaido journey, Alice faces off with Terri and against all odds, defeats her in a duel. The two patch up their friendship, and the team is back together again.
With the cases solved and Claire resurrected, the team has to close a dangerous Rift that has opened by the coast. Just as they succeed in closing it, though, the last person Alice ever expected has arrived to stop her…
BEFORE YOUR ADVENTURE BEGINS…
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Main Cast
Alice Pachari Kamiya: the heroine of this series.
Tetsuya “Dead Ted” Morinaga: Alice’s sidekick. An ex-Yakuza gangster who now inhabits various objects as a ghost.
Aserzo “Ace” Drepani: a vampire-reaper hybrid who helps Alice during her journey.
Daji: The nine-tailed Kitsune sorceress and Alice’s mother.
Amaterasu: Sun goddess, head deity of the Shintō pantheon, and Council representative. Nicknamed Terri.
Susanō: Shintō god of storms and Amaterasu’s twin brother. Nicknamed Susie.
Claire Wilder: mysterious assassin who aids Alice on her quest.
Ryūsei Uchida: Alice’s classmate and would-be bully at Aizawa High School.
Contents
Dedication
The Story So Far…
Main Cast
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Teaser: Threads of Fate
Teaser: City of the Night Sword
Also by the Author
About the Author
Glossary & Pronunciation
Notes
1
16 Years Earlier…
In her millennia-long life, the fox sorceress Daji1 had flirted with fleeting happiness, but she only truly experienced it when she gave birth to her baby. And one summer night under a clear, starry sky, when they came to kill the child, Daji lost everything she'd ever loved.
During the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, Daji was breathed to life by a goddess and given a sole command: to ruin King Zhou and his empire for insulting the goddess. Daji succeeded far beyond expectations, following her internal programming: seduce, corrupt, destroy. Every beat of her heart told her, "Kill the humans. Kill them slowly. Make them suffer. And enjoy every moment of it."
She became feared throughout the Shang Dynasty for inventing particularly cruel and bizarre methods of torture. She cloaked her bloodlust under the guise of curiosity. When she saw a farmer walking on ice with his bare feet, she had them cut off so she could "study" them. She did the same with tearing open a pregnant woman's stomach or ripping out a minister's heart.
But the invention she was most proud of was the Paolao, an oil-slick cylinder with a charcoal furnace underneath. After working her magic on King Zhou, the two spent many nights watching and laughing at the foolish peasants as they tried--and failed--to stay balanced on top and fell, burning to death.
After bringing about the downfall of the Shang Dynasty, Daji avoided capture and fled the country, heading to India and going by the name Lady Kayō. Just as before, she worked her charms on the king, manipulating him into slaughtering priests and children and throwing the nation into chaos. When her sinister influences were discovered, she escaped and returned to China.
She changed her name again, this time to Bao Si, and became a concubine of King You. With her irresistible beauty and charisma, it wasn't long before King You abandoned his head wife and made Bao Si his queen. The two swept China up in another reign of terror, bathing it in blood. Ultimately, King You was executed by his former followers, and the nine-tailed fox spirit departed for a new land to the east.
Using her incredible magic, she disguised herself as a young girl named Wakamo and tugged on the heartstrings of some fishermen to take her with them to Japan. They sailed over stormy, violent waters and finally reached their homeland. Wakamo took quite a liking to these new lands and lived there quietly for a few centuries.
But she couldn't remain hidden forever. Rumors and whispers about an otherworldly-beautiful, intelligent young woman spread across the country, reaching the ears of Emperor Toba. He summoned her to his court and tested her on her manners, poetry, and knowledge of the classics. She performed far beyond his expectations, with wit and grace that exceeded every other woman he'd ever seen. The emperor took her on as his consort and gave her a new name, Tamamo-no-Mae2. The two lived happily for a time, but her instincts kicked in and she eventually succumbed to them.
"Kill the humans. Kill them slowly. Make them suffer. And enjoy every m
oment of it."
Emperor Toba fell under a sudden and unexplainable illness. His ministers called in Abe no Yasunari3, the father of the legendary mage Abe no Seimei4, to uncover the cause. The man was an Onmyōji5, an exorcist charged with predicting the future and cleansing evil spirits. He saw through her illusions, discovered she was a nine-tailed fox demon, and the two engaged in a duel of spells. She would have slaughtered him with ease if she hadn't been outnumbered and hunted down by an army of over 80,000 soldiers. Her body pierced with arrows and her head sliced off, Daji tasted death for the first time in her long life.
But death did not keep her.
Daji had expected and prepared for something like this to happen, so she crafted a powerful enchantment that transferred her soul into a large stone. She warded it so any human lacking supernatural blood who touched it would be cursed and die instantly. A priest who carried faint traces of the blood of the gods in his veins--the ancestor of the Kobayashi clan--destroyed the stone, mistakenly thinking he purified her soul and sent it to heaven. Instead, he released her to roam free once more.
Centuries passed. Daji kept a low profile and did her best not to mingle with the humans, only wreaking havoc when her urges completely overwhelmed her. She began wondering, With everything I've done, do I deserve to live? Do I deserve even the slightest sliver of happiness?
Her answer came in the form of a handsome, smiling man named Diego Pachari6 who became an upper-level manager at a motor vehicle company after retiring from his former line of work. They’d met in the cloudy, dream-like valleys of Peru, and Daji's heart longed for him more than it had for anyone. The two fell in love, and—after some thrilling adventures—were soon married, a "young" couple in bliss.
Perhaps, she thought, this is my one shot at redemption. A chance to live a peaceful, normal life liberated from the bloodshed and chaos. I will purify my heart, do kind acts for others, and seek forgiveness for the atrocities I've committed.
The following spring, her belly swelled with new life. A daughter. Daji had given birth to many children over the years, but none that she cared for like this bundle of joy kicking around inside her. She loved the child with every cell, every fiber, every thought and couldn't bear to be apart from her for even a minute. They named the baby "Alice" after the Lewis Caroll character from Diego's favorite childhood story.
"Please," Daji always whispered to the infant inside her when they were alone. "Please don't grow up to be like me. Don't allow my blood to taint you, my sweet little jewel."
Diego's company gave him the opportunity to transfer to a new branch opening in Japan. Daji was hesitant at first given what had happened the last time she'd lived there, but eventually relented.
Aizawa was a humble, sleepy little town in the mountains. The perfect place to raise a family. As was expected in this country, even in modern day, Daji stayed home and watched Alice while Diego worked at the new plant downtown. They lived in a modest home surrounded by Zen rock gardens and hazy, purple mountains in the distance.
During the sticky, humid summer evenings, Daji would take Alice outside and rock her gently in the breeze. She sang her a lullaby, a melancholy yet comforting melody she'd learned to perform for Emperor Toba. The lullaby calmed Alice whenever she cried, and the infant's brown eyes would stare with wonder at Daji's loving smile.
On that fateful night, Daji held Alice in her arms and sang to her. Crickets and cicadas chirped as the trees swayed in the wind. The iron gate at the garden entrance rattled.
"Darling?" Daji called. "Is that you? Are you home early?"
No answer. Her golden fox ears twitched, detecting movement. Her Glamour magic maintained the illusion around Diego and the other humans, making her look like a normal--yet strikingly gorgeous--Japanese woman in her late twenties.
"Hello? Is someone there?"
From the shadows, three cloaked figures emerged. One sported a scraggly beard under a hood, another was clad in a spiked helmet and jagged metal armor, and the one in the middle wore a wide-brimmed hat.
"Is there something I can do for you?" she asked, holding the infant tight against her chest.
"We've found her," the bearded one said in a scratchy voice eroded by centuries of age. "An Aeon."
"Excuse me? Is this part of some business with my husband? He's not home right now, and he doesn’t do that kind of job anymore.”
"No," the armored one's voice echoed. "We're here for the child."
Daji's heart plummeted. "My baby? Why?"
"Nothing personal," the middle one said, sounding younger and boyish. "I'm real sorry about this."
He fanned his cloak, revealing a holster underneath. Daji shrieked as he drew a revolver and pulled the trigger. The bullet glistened under the starlight as it sailed through the air, hurtling towards the baby's forehead. Daji's fingernails transformed into talons and shielded the child. The bullet made a spark in the darkness as it bounced off her claws harmlessly.
"Fair play,” the gunman whistled. "Guess I'll need to use my other shells."
Daji bared her fangs at them, adrenaline pumping in her veins. "I do not know who you are or why you are here, but if you try to hurt my daughter again, I will inflict torments upon you so horrific you'll be begging for death.
"Got a scary one, huh?" the bearded assassin said. "Looks like I need to call for some backup."
He lifted a gloved hand in the air. In the empty skies, dozens of amethyst-colored magic circles appeared. From the center of each, a servant appeared and was dumped out onto the ground. There were all kinds of them: angelic creatures covered in eyes and wings, demons with leathery bat wings, shuffling undead corpses, and hellhounds with eyes made of flaming damnation.
Alice cried. Daji peered at her and placed a finger on her lips. "Shhh...it's all right, my darling. Mommy's here. Mommy won't let the bad men hurt you." She raised her head and glared at the assassins and their minions. "This is your final warning. Leave. Now."
The bearded man pointed, sending his swarms after her. With Alice bundled in one hand, Daji fought them off with the other, blasting them with bolts of lightning and streams of fire. They pulled at her hair and reached at her, trying to snatch away her child. She bound them in chains, then danced across the sky and raked them with her claws. Behind her, the armored assassin swung a shining sword made of pure light. She dodged it, distorting time and space around her to speed up her movement.
A loud crack resounded. A bullet darted after her. She gasped. This was no normal bullet. As it traveled, a translucent spirit materialized from it, the spirit of a god. The deity lifted a hammer that surged with electricity and brought it down upon her as the bullet neared her body. The bullet grazed her, but the crackling hammer slammed into her.
She groaned and stumbled backwards. "What...what on earth was that?"