A/N: I don't own DGrayman.
Propping a leg up, she hoisted her body upright, feeling her heavy wings sink, tearing at the cut flesh on her back where the akumas had scored successful hits. Gritting her teeth, she rose to full length, refusing to relent to the instinctual wincing at the stabs of pain from her wounds. Her wings sagged minutely. The aching muscles in her back screamed for release.
No, not yet.
Within the confines of the energy shield behind her, protects several hundreds of people, innocent townsfolk influenced by only their beliefs, weak and frail against the monsters she was facing.
Protect them, a voice, long washed away by time resurfaced as she faintly heard the hushed and panicked breaths from behind the closed town gate just inches from the energy field she was leaning on.
Abruptly, she in another scene, in an entire other setting. The shackles at her wrist had dug deeply from when she first struggled to release herself from the bonds that held her before the church altar. They hung limp then, the iron chains weighing her limbs down. She heard nothing but terrified screams of the towns people staring at the face of death for the first and last time of their lives.
A dark foreboding reach her, she stared in its direction. The figureless sense of danger glared back almost menacingly. Not a moment later, the large stained windows exploded inwards, showering shards of glinting glass onto the benches that occupied the majority of the long church. A round figure appeared in the space of the windows. It turned, revealing the face eternally contorted into a silent cry of pain. Its eyes reflected nothing of the actions of its body; it contained fear while its physical body slaughtered others.
Just as the mechanical cackling of the three akumas drew closer, her attention of the present returned. Hefting herself from the energy wall, her legs wobbled slightly under the weight of her torso.
Protect them, even when they don't love you, her sister had screamed when she had dug her feathers into the black skeleton marked only by the blood red name on its brow; Vel.
Mother said the same thing, she thought while staring at the hideously looking machines that came stalking at her. They hate me for what I am not, but they only have me to defend them.
The stare solidify into determination.
Hunching her shoulders, she braced a foot against the energy generated wall.
Her wings snapped into full length.
Take my strength!
It took a moment for the command to take effect, but respond, her wings did.
Heat bled out of her innards quickly, flowing like a river to an unknown destination while the small in her back where her wings protruded from grew hotter, gaining energy. The air around her became frigid with a cold she could not feel earlier. She felt her body heat up, but feeling none of the warmth in her horribly cold core. The contrast almost had her lose the steady thread of concentration on her determination. Grunting, she took to the changes.
Like a tide, the energy she felt receding came crushing back, flowing like molten lead in her veins, dropping almost free-flowingly to the bottoms of her feet while inching painfully up her throat.
The burning sensation seared across her cheeks. The heated trails across her body no doubt left dark curled patterns, her first time seeing it in thousands of glass shards reflecting herself as the beast of apocalypse.
A second wave of heat rose from her chest. The constriction in her throat forced her head skywards. She winced as the slash across her chest stretched, recoiling.
The level threes drew closer. Almost two buildings away from her now.
She raised an arm in front of her body as if a ward, fingers curling inwards.
The change is not fast enough.
"Too slow!" a high pitched sneer called out just before the one of the akumas disappeared from sight, only to reappear right in front of her, swinging a well armored arm at her head.
Weakened by the previous battering, the exorcist took the blow with her upraised arm to the side, dampening the force of the side punch. It was however, still strong enough to sweep her off her feet and into the unshielded town gate protruding from a side of the wall. She did not rise immediately.
"Well, well," the dark green humanoid akuma quipped, leading the other two towards the lump of cloth that was the exorcist. "You were pretty good, for a girl,"
"But not good enough!" the second, a navy blue akuma with a horn on its skull side-stepped the first, aiming a kick at the fallen girl, and stumbled upon realizing the clump stuck to his foot.
"Hey!" he shook his appendage to dislodge the black clothed girl that was clinging onto his talons as if her life depended on it.
She said nothing, her silence disturbed only by her ragged breathing.
"Let go!" the frustrated akuma hissed, kicking his caught foot at the town gates, earning muffled grunts from the exorcist.
Her grip tightened.
"Hey!" the now irritated level three yelped, feeling the determined clutch on his leg turn into a choke worthy squeeze.
The exorcist growled, a low throaty sound from deep within her small frame. With a swish, the dark wings tucked into her cloak that hung in tatters sprung open, then closed again to clamp around the leg of the akuma. A set of claws rose from the black mass shot into the edge of the akuma's armor around its knee area, instantaneously tearing the limb off with strength she had not displayed earlier in the fight. Faster than the akumas' multiple eyes were able to catch, the black mass quickly ascended the akuma's body length, leaving a trail of destruction.
"What t-" the first akuma that spoke barely finished before the exorcist launched herself at its head. For a split second, the level three glimpse the deranged glare from the now ebony black orbs that were the exorcist's eyes; and skin decorated with black fire, tattooed into the girl's face. It was the face of rage if it had a body. Around her head, she was framed by the bright orange explosion of the first akuma she had laid waste to.
A/N: A random story of a random exorcist that happen to exist in a random time... I still don't get why the show was called man. What's so grey/gray about it? This may or may not continue. It depends quite heavily on inspiration and the amount of time I have to spend on studies, or school related things (which is, a lot). I do have another chapter and a half after this one...