Chapter One
Umbra
Colette didn't eat her breakfast this morning.
Not that she was normally a very voracious eater, though the blonde-haired girl certainly did work up an appetite after travelling on foot all day. But lately – specifically yesterday, after she'd just gained her angel wings at the Seal of Fire – she had no desire to eat anymore. Worse, she didn't even feel tired after abstaining from food…like she no longer required its nutrition to stay healthy.
And everyone seemed to have their own reason why she didn't want to eat. Genis had chalked it up to the stress of the journey and being away from home. Raine had said she needed rest, and passed it off as something that would correct itself over time. Kratos, as per usual, said nothing. But Lloyd had instincts the others didn't.
He knew she wasn't quite right, and that scared her more than the behemoth fire-breathing monster they'd slain before.
Admittedly, he didn't know why she wasn't quite right, but the fact that he saw through her mask of bravery was unnerving to her. Colette had always been told to face her trials with unwavering courage, and that was what she intended. But those knowing looks Lloyd gave her when she kindly declined a meal were making it truly hard to keep lying to him.
She gazed up at the bright blue sky with even bluer eyes and forced a smile. The Chosen's life was never easy.
For the moment, Lloyd thankfully didn't seem too preoccupied with her condition. As the five of them continued towards the Ossa Trail, the brown-eyed boy kept a few paces ahead of her, his twin blades withdrawn and swinging at invisible enemies. At the encouragement of Kratos, he spent almost every waking moment enthusiastically practicing his swordsmanship. Whenever he would try a new move, he would glance back at the mercenary for feedback with a beaming grin on his face, but all he would ever receive was either an imperceptible nod, a low grunt, or, if Kratos was really impressed, a nod and a grunt.
He kept on trying, though. For all his naïvete and boyish habits, Lloyd's determination could be truly inspiring.
Or headache-inducing, depending on who you talked to.
Raine led the group. She held her staff in one hand and a compass in the other, ensuring that they were always headed in the right direction; in this case, towards the coast on the far east. Kozei was not far now - but she wasn't exactly excited to arrive.
Raine hated dragons.
Their scaly hides…their piercing horns…and those teeth that could chew you to pieces in one bite. They smelled weird too, like charred earth. And that awful sound of flapping wings… A look of disdain marred her graceful face at the mere thought.
She wasn't looking forward to passing through Kozei, but it was the only way to get to their next destination. Lloyd, of course, couldn't wait to get there, and neither could her brother Genis: "Dragons are awesome!" they'd echoed in unison. Raine wondered as they approached the summit of a hill what it would be like to share their enthusiasm. Males…
A dark figure suddenly rushed past her, and it took Raine a moment to realize the arm that was now blocking her path belonged to Kratos. He'd been at the rear of the group less that a second ago. How that man moved so fast was beyond her.
Raine blinked and looked up at the mercenary with narrowed eyes. "Do you hear something?"
The other three halted behind them as Kratos nodded, one hand on the hilt of his gleaming sword. "There are many voices. Desians," he added coldly. "Just over this hill."
Colette widened her eyes, Genis slumped his shoulders and Lloyd hissed a curse.
Raine's expression fell grim. "Let's take a look. Maybe we can avoid them."
The five of them cautiously approached the summit, Kratos in the lead. Kozei lay at the bottom, a few hundred yards ahead. The small village consisted of maybe three-dozen houses, all in varying sizes and states of decay. Most were created out of greyish-green limestone blocks likely extracted from a quarry in the nearby mountains, their roofs a crude mixture of tar and wooden planks. A few sparse trees speckled the landscape, the only vegetation for miles. A ramshackle fence futilely attempted to circle the town's perimeter. All in all, a pretty run-down, unremarkable village - except for the hulking forms of what looked to be over fifty dragons, blotted among the houses like brown and green and black ink stains. The occasional growling call of one of the beasts could be heard over the shouting human voices, half of which belonged to the villagers, and the other half, the Desians.
Kratos was right once again. There were indeed Desians, but they weren't pillaging or causing other such anarchy.
They were…buying something?
"What's going on?" Lloyd said into the silence, echoing everyone's thoughts.
"The Desians don't seem to be causing harm," Kratos said calmly. "Let us watch for a moment before we take action."
Sara Baldasarre had never been this angry.
The door to her home flew open with such force that a hinge cracked. It was left open, forgotten. She stalked outside, her solid legs eating up the dusty earth as she pulled on a pair of grey-blue gauntlets over black gloves and sun-darkened skin.
She snarled a vile string of curses under her breath. Short, fiery orange hair swayed with each of her pounding steps, the tail of a teal duster floating behind her as she walked on feet covered in durable knee-high boots. A pair of deep chestnut eyes narrowed in accusation as she approached a tall, stocky, balding man who was talking with a pair of those stupid Desians. Never one to be subtle, she reached out a confident hand and grabbed his shoulder from behind, whipping him around to face her furious gaze.
"Mayor Clark! What in the hell do you think you're doing?"
The startled man quickly regained his composure and fed her a greedy smirk from his lightly-wrinkled face. He gestured grandly to the two Desians glaring at her from beneath their tarnished metal helmets.
"Sara, dear, don't be so naïve. I'm making this village more money today than it's ever seen!"
The woman's jaw dropped in disbelief, but her blazing eyes didn't lose their resolve. Her small, heart-shaped face was contorted in an expression of disgust. She glanced from the Mayor's smug smile, to the Desians, and back. Unlike him, she was well aware of the atrocious things that this group of half-elves was capable of.
"But, you don't know what they're going to do with our dragons!" She pressed. Her voice was naturally low and a bit hoarse, but it sounded moreso now than usual. "You can't just sell them to-"
"Oh yes, I can," he cut her off sternly. "These gentlemen have agreed to pay us fifty-thousand gald per dragon. Fifty-thousand! Do you know what we can buy with all that gald? We'll be the richest city in Sylvarant!"
One of the Desians chuckled and pointed his sword at Sara, sneering when she looked down at its sharpened tip with repugnance. "I get the feeling that this one doesn't like us very much." He sent a wary look to the mayor, his voice low and threatening. "Maybe we should reconsider our deal…?"
All the color drained from Mayor Clark's face. Turning to Sara, he growled and raised his broad hand as if to slap her. She stared at him defiantly, unflinching, her hands curling into fists.
"I dare you," she muttered darkly.
He ignored her. "Dammit, Sara, don't ruin this for the village! Just go back to your house and be quiet!"
She gave him one last broiling look before she turned and headed into the center of town. Whatever the Desians wanted the dragons for was not something she would be part of. What was going on with Kozei? Not even the mayor cared what happened. As she headed for a neighbor's house, she hoped the rest of the villagers had more of a heart.
In all of the bargaining going on, Lloyd and his group were unnoticed. The five of them stood at the entrance to the village, watching the scene in front of them unfold with widened eyes.
The Desians had brought an army of massive vehicles with steel cages anchored to the back. Several of their soldiers were talking with Kozei villagers in businesslike voices, exchanging what looked to be large bags of gald. Once the exchange was made, the villagers always returned to their homes without a second thought, and the Desian soldiers would then brandish a weapon that none of the Chosen's group had seen before. It looked to be a large apparatus that fired a steel clamp, which would anchor itself around a dragon's neck and then send a jolt of searing electricity through its skin.
Cries of dragons in pain began echoing throughout the village. Shouts of Desians rose up as a dragon here or there would fight back, rearing up on its powerful hind legs, wings flared, flinging the soldiers about as if they were ragdolls. But another one of those shocks would prove to be too much for it, and it would fall in a crumpled heap to the ground. The Desians would then coax the weakened beast into one of those cages, locking it away for whatever malevolent purpose they had planned.
All the while, the humans of the village did nothing to stop it.
Colette teared up at the sight of so much suffering. Every one of those desperate roars made her thin shoulders flinch. She held her clasped hands below her chin and shook her head. "This is awful…"
"Why aren't the villagers fighting them? Don't they know what's going on?" Genis asked, looking up at his older sister.
Raine let out a sigh. She may not have been fond of dragons, but seeing them in pain like this was not something that sat well with her. "The dragons are being sold, Genis. Look." She pointed the crystalline head of her staff at a trio of villagers in the midst of making a deal with a group of Desians. The Desians held up a bag of gald and gestured to it, then the dragon standing behind the villagers. "The Desians are buying all of Kozei's dragons. But why?"
Kratos stepped beside Raine and narrowed his cinnamon eyes. "Exspheres," he said simply.
Lloyd turned to look at the auburn-haired man, startled. "Exspheres? You mean, the Desians are using dragons for Exspheres? Like at Iselia's human ranch?"
Whatever Kratos was staring at kept him from answering Lloyd's question. Among the crowd, he spotted a tall woman with orange hair running around to each of the villagers. It appeared she was pleading with them, pointing frantically from the dragons to the Desians and shaking her head.
"Someone is dissenting," he said. One hand went instinctively to his sword. "Be on your guard, Lloyd. This may become unpleasant."
"Suka, please listen to me!" Sara cried, holding out her arms to prevent a thin, frail woman from walking past her. She shook her head, her chest heaving, her eyes wild as she pointed to the dragon in front of her. "You know the Desians won't be kind to Londys like you have. Just look at what they've done to Belial and Iskur!"
The woman named Suka closed her eyes and shook her head of pale brown hair, hefting the bag of gald in her arms. "I had to give him up, Sara. You know how my family's fallen on hard times. This money will change our lives." She placed a hand on Sara's shoulder, sorrow obvious on her weathered face. "I'm sorry. You understand."
Sara turned to follow Suka as she continued towards her home. "But…but you've raised Londys since he was a hatchling. You've taken care of him for over fifteen years! Does his life mean so little to you?"
Suka continued forward without acknowledging her, and promptly shut the door in her face.
Sara stared in bewilderment at the stained wooden door. A mighty roar behind her forced her to turn around, and she could only watch as Londys met the same fate as so many of the others had. Blinding arcs of electricity shot up his neck and through his wings, and he struggled to free himself from the restraint around his neck even as he collapsed to the ground. He eyed Sara desperately, completely bewildered and frightened, like he was begging for help and some sort of explanation as to why everything suddenly hurt so much.
Sara cringed and looked away. These goddamn Desians…they had destroyed her life once already. And now that she'd come back and rebuilt herself, they were ruining it all over again.
Steeling herself, Sara sprinted to the house at the far end of town; fortunately, the Desians hadn't made it this far yet. This was where the dragons she helped care for were penned. They stood taller than the others, their horns longer, and both wore scars on their scales from battles waged long ago. One had scales of a pale green, and the other a gray-blue, their strong necks arched high, watching their brothers and sisters being taken away with wise and fearful eyes. Their hatchling, a smaller dragon with deep purple scales, cried out to Sara as she approached, seeking comfort amidst all the noise.
Sara slowed to a walk and held her hands out to cradle the young dragon's head. It returned her affection instantly, rubbing its snout against her arm as wisps of smoke trailed from its nostrils.
"It's alright, Iona," Sara cooed, gently scratching behind her budding horns. Sara took in a breath and let it out in a rush. "I won't let them hurt you. I promise."
Iona whinnied at her, bouncing from one leg to the other, flaring her wings and then pulling them back. Sara gazed up at the two older beasts. "Tarja. Ko'tenda… You have to fight them. Please. You have to-"
"Sara."
The front door of the house beside her opened with a weary creak. A man and woman stood in the doorway, looking at Sara solemnly. The woman's head hung low as she kept her eyes lowered to the floor, and her hands shook as they gripped the edges of a dull brown shawl.
Sara rushed to them. "Tana, Mikhail! Please tell me you aren't going to do it…"
The man, Mikhail, stared back at her coldly. "You know we have to, Sara."
Sara's face fell, her shoulders sagging under the weight of his words. She shook her head slowly. "Not Tarja and Ko. You can't…"
"As their handlers, we have the right," Mikhail continued as if she hadn't spoken. He glanced off to the side as a group of Desians began approaching. "They've offered us 100,000 gald for both of them. Do you realize how much money that is? We can live off that for the rest of our lives!"
More agonized roars split the air. Sara flinched with each one, her shoulders jerking, her breath catching in her throat. Desians shouted orders and curses and she heard the sound of the cages closing, smelled the stench of burned skin from those shock collars.
Her eyes shut tight, and little by little, her hands curled into those trembling fists again.
"It's just money," she muttered in a low voice. Her swaying bangs cast shadows over her face, hiding her expression. "You're sending them to die for money."
Mikhail seemed momentarily taken aback by the abrupt shift in her demeanor. The kind face Sara had grown so accustomed to seeing had been replaced with one of obstinate, guiltless frigidity. He placed one arm protectively around his wife Tana and stepped into the yard. "You don't know they're going to die, Sara. Besides, my family needs this. It's time to forget our old ways and find our place in the world." He gestured to the surrounding homes with a sweep of his arm. "Kozei has been poor for decades. This is our chance to gain status as a prominent city…not some run-down dragon farm."
Every one of Sara's muscles tensed. She couldn't understand what had happened to the village…why everyone had been so blinded by greed. Gald was just gald. These dragons were living, breathing, feeling creatures, creatures she truly cared for, and she knew they were being sent to their deaths.
Why was she the only one left who cared?
Pained cries echoed in her ears. The Desians laughed cruelly as the remaining dragons were electrocuted and hauled off in cages. Her whole existence, everything she'd ever loved, was falling to pieces all around her. Her friends, her neighbors, and finally Tarja and Ko'tenda's handlers…all greedy traitors, taking their money and never looking back.
Sara stood in silence, her head lowered, her fists clenched at her sides as the Desians swarmed around her. Another soldier approached Tana and Mikhail at the door, smirking as he held out two large bags of gald.
"Here's the money we promised. A hundred grand for the two big ones."
Mikhail released his wife and took the money from the Desian's extended hand. He handed them off to Tana, who took hold of the bags and cradled them like children, repeating "Oh, thank you" over and over in a pitiful voice. She stood by her husband and wept, overwhelmed by the enormous fortune resting comfortably in her grasp.
There was a pause, and Sara thought the transaction was over until Mikhail spoke again.
"The hatchling… she has an exceptional pedigree," he added quietly. The Desian who'd given them the money turned to look at Iona, his armor clattering softly at the movement.
Sara's eyes snapped open. They were dark and lost and very wrong.
Mikhail continued, his voice seemingly devoid of feeling. "We'd be willing to sell her, too…For the right price."
A hand to his chin, the Desian thought in silence for a moment before he gestured at another soldier. He was promptly brought an additional large bag of gald.
"Lord Kvar has displayed interest in experimenting with hatchlings as well. We'll pay you thirty-thousand for it."
Hesitation didn't even flicker on Mikhail's face as he nodded and accepted the third bag. "Thank you for your generosity." Hefting it onto his shoulder, he turned to Tana, smiling. "Honey, can you believe this? We're rich!"
Now that the business was out of the way, the Desians were eager to wrap up the process. Sara could feel the ground rumble as three of the steel cages were pulled up beside Tarja and Ko'tenda's pen. A couple of the soldiers were readying two of those large guns that fired metal clamps. The pair of dragons grew agitated, stomping their clawed feet and calling out with low, threatening grunts. After witnessing what had happened to the others, it was obvious to the creatures what sort of fate was coming for them as well.
Iona cried out in fear as the Desians surrounded she and her parents, looking around desperately for a way to escape. One of them pointed a sword at Iona's face and laughed at the way she recoiled.
"Shut up, you monster, or else I'll take your head off before all the fun starts."
Sara's low, smooth voice caught their attention: "You will not harm her."
There was something off about the way she was standing, her shoulders hunched and her head lowered. The air around her seemed to shimmer as if she were radiating an intense heat. "And you will not take Tarja or Ko'tenda. I will not let you."
The Desian who paid off Tana and Mikhail approached her, laughing and brandishing his sword. "Heh. I'd love to see you try. What do you think you're going to do about it, woman?"
His fellow soldiers erupted in laughter, and the sound of it drowned out the series of soft clicks as a set of what appeared to be battle claws descended from Sara's arm guards. She wiggled her fingers securely into the 3-inch razor-sharp tips and flexed them one at a time. With that done, she clicked her wrists together, and a pair of spikes sprang from the gauntlets' outer edges, curving wickedly back and up towards her head.
She faced Iona, speaking once again in that eerily calm voice.
"Fly away from here, Iona. Fly far away, and don't ever come back."
Iona remained silent, but recognition flashed in her reptilian eyes, displaying for the briefest of moments an intelligence that did not belong there.
Once he had managed to stop laughing at his own jest, the lead Desian snapped his fingers at the others and rested his sword on his shoulder confidently. "Just ignore this stupid bitch. Take the dragons down and let's get out of this dump." They nodded in understanding and moved in towards Tarja and Ko'tenda, who began to utter low, threatening growls.
Sara heard one of them say, "This little one's so puny, we won't even need to shock it!" Another responded with: "I say we just cut its wings off and throw it in with the others."
Cut off its wings…
Shut up, you monster…I'll take your head off!...
What do you think you're going to do about it, woman?
Her head jerked up suddenly. Her crazed eyes locked on to the lead Desian. In a flash, she lunged forward and slashed at his unprotected throat with her claws. She felt them meet deliciously with soft, yielding flesh, tearing and ripping through his skin with glorious ease.
She smelled the tang of blood as it spattered to the ground and across her chest. She heard their vague cries of horror as his lifeless body crumpled at her feet, and she laughed.
And that's the last thing she remembered before her mind succumbed to madness.
Lloyd had thought he'd seen the lowest the Desians could go when he'd seen Iselia's human ranch. But what was happening in Kozei brought them down to a whole new level of despicable. He looked around the village with wide brown eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I don't understand! Why are the Desians buying all the dragons?"
"I believe it's like Kratos said earlier, Lloyd," Raine answered as she and the rest of the group walked through Kozei. "They seem to be taking them for some sort of experimentation."
"With Exspheres," Genis finished, glancing down at the gem on the back of his hand with a frown.
Colette felt extremely unsettled. "But why dragons, Professor?"
Raine narrowed her eyes at the dozens of Kozei villagers fawning over their bags of gald. She swallowed and forced down the bile rising in her throat. Watching them made her sick inside.
"Who knows. Perhaps it's an attempt to create new Exspheres. It's reasonable to assume that, since a dragon is physically much stronger than a human, it might create an Exsphere that raises its wearer's abilities to an even higher level, or give the wearer new kinds of powers."
"But a dragon's mana is really different from a human's," Colette said, frowning. "And there's a lot more of it. I think using Exspheres on dragons sounds really dangerous."
Lloyd shook his head and abruptly stopped walking. As the others turned to look back at him, he stared at the dragons locked in the Desians' cages, screeching in pain and clawing desperately at the metal bars.
"I don't know what the Desians are doing, but I know this isn't right. No life should have to suffer like this, not even a dragon." Determined, he unsheathed his gleaming twin blades, looking to the four of his companions for support. "Let's help them!"
Genis widened his eyes and uttered a small sound of surprise. Raine and Kratos exchanged a knowing glance, but Colette was nodding fervently.
"Lloyd, that's not our objective," Raine began in a commanding voice. Truthfully, she agreed with the teen, but that wasn't what was most important at this time. "We need to get to the next seal so Colette can release it. We don't have time to involve ourselves in something like this."
"Our goal is to help the world and all that live in it, right, Professor?" Lloyd pressed, squaring his shoulders in the way he always did when defending one of his many ideals. "Well, these dragons live in it, too. And they need our help! We have to do something!"
Something flashed in Kratos' calculating eyes then, so brief it almost didn't exist. It looked like…pride?
"Lloyd is right!" The Chosen's pale face seemed suddenly cut from stone, unwavering.
Raine sighed again and was just about to speak, but she was interrupted by an ear-piercing, bloodcurdling scream.
"Wh-What was that?" Genis stammered, his pale face even whiter than usual.
Kratos instantly drew his sword and stepped in front of the others. On the far end of town, Desians could be heard shouting and Kozei villagers were running in all directions, fleeing in fear.
In the midst of a group of soldiers was a lone woman in a teal duster. She was savagely fighting the Desians as they attempted to fire shock collars at the village's two remaining dragons.
As he watched her for a moment longer, he realized that she was doing more than merely fighting the Desians. She was annihilating them.
Raine and Genis seemed at once uncomfortable. The latter was squinting as he stared at the stranger, like he were looking at something extremely bright and unable to open his eyes entirely.
"Raine, do you-"
"Yes," the Professor finished grimly. Her chest felt heavy, and the air thin. "I can sense something very… dark."
Broiling shadows replaced coherent thought. Muscles fired from rage and hatred alone. Sara had no control over her actions anymore. She knew it, and in some dimly-lit corner of her mind, she knew she had to stop - but it didn't matter. Something, someone had invaded her head - a hateful creature that smiled at cries of pain and licked its lips at the taste of blood.
It felt strange. Exciting. Delicious…
A Desian came at her from behind, charging with his blade. She easily ducked out of the way, whipping around on him faster than he could react, and before he'd even registered the fact that he'd missed her, his stomach had been slit open and his intestines were bursting through the gash. Mouth gaping, he futilely attempted to hold the shredded organs in with his gloved hands before he crumpled to the ground.
Another charged at her from the side, and she flung out her arm, catching the blade between the strong, thick spikes on her gauntlet. A metallic screech pierced the air as she forced her arm down along with the sword, disarming the Desian and exposing his vulnerable neck that her claws ripped into just a moment later. Blood sprayed from the wound and dotted her crazed face like red freckles. She smiled wickedly as he collapsed next to the other two.
One of the remaining Desians still had the right of mind to fire the shock collar guns at Tarja and Ko'tenda. The thick metal coils wound through the air and pulled taut once the collars had anchored around the dragons' necks. An arc of prickling electricity shot into the creatures, eliciting deafening roars of agony and setting their scales ablaze with blue sparks.
"No!" Sara was on top of the Desian in an instant, pinning him down, flinging off his helmet and tearing at his exposed face with her claws. He made a vague gurgling sound in protest as he tried to speak past the blood filling his mouth, but lost consciousness to the pain of his nose cracking and ripping from his face.
Tarja and Ko'tenda fell, weakened but not yet done in. The pair were true warriors – over five hundred years old, and they weren't going to give up as easily as the rest. The male, Ko'tenda, got to his feet with a pained roar, wings spread wide, and craned his long neck back in preparation for a release of flames.
"Hit it again! Now!" A Desian barked, and another shock was triggered, stronger this time, forcing Ko'tenda's mouth closed before he could attack. The great beast slumped to his knees once again, barely hanging on to consciousness.
"Stop it, you bastard!" Sara shrieked, and just before she would've brought the Desian to a similar fate as his companions, she heard a woman scream.
Her back went rigid and she pivoted to face the source of the sound.
It was Tana, her eyes wide with horror, her hands covering her mouth.
Sara's face fell into a mask of grim sincerity at the sight of her. As the frightened woman's gaze met hers, Sara flexed her claws one by one. A drop of blood fell from the tip of one strand of her hair and splattered to the already stained ground.
You…
The word echoed in her head in time with her deceptively calm heartbeat.
Mikhail, standing next to his wife, stepped in front of her protectively, his arms spread wide despite his pallid and obviously terrified face.
"S-Sara, please, we…we're sorry. We'll give the money back. We'll-"
"You did this to them," Sara snarled. She took another step, crushing the hand of a dead Desian beneath her boot. "My dragons, my family. You wanted to send them to their deaths for money."
Mikhail's face went impossibly whiter. Tana started sobbing as if she'd already resigned herself to her fate.
"Sara, please, don't hurt us. We...we're good people. You know that, Sara. We just made a…little mistake," Mikhail pleaded desperately. He paused, swallowing hard, his voice wavering. "Forgive us…We'll g-give the money back, alright?"
"You coward!" She lunged for his neck, and easily tore out his throat with one swift swipe of her hand. "Don't sicken me with your begs for mercy! You've earned your fate." Her foot flew out and connected solidly with his abdomen.
He staggered backwards, holding his hands to his profusely bleeding neck as pressurized streams of blood shot out between his fingers. He managed one last look at his wife before he slumped to his knees and fell face first into the dirt. A puddle of blood crept around his head like a sanguine halo.
Sara slowly lifted her gaze to his wife.
Tana couldn't even manage a scream before Sara's claws slammed into her face. She spun around once and toppled like a ragdoll onto her husband. All that remained of Tana's features was a pulpy mass of flesh that stared blindly up at the sky. The bags of gald rested beside her, as if spectating her death.
Somehow, while Sara had been distracted, the Desians had dragged Tarja and Ko'tenda's unconscious bodies into their cages. She heard one of them say, "Dammit, forget about the little one. Let's just get the hell out of here!"
Rage darkened her bloodstained face, and she would've charged after the parade of cages escaping into the distance if she hadn't spotted something out of the corner of her eye.
It was the villagers. Nearly all of them, circled around her, all staring at her with frightened eyes…like she was the villain here. Like she was the one who had wronged. Sara wrinkled her nose and growled low in her throat at their audacity.
Desiring only money, without any care of what may happen to their dragons…They were the ones who needed to be punished. Her intense russet gaze found Suka amidst the group, the woman who'd sold her dragon Londys just a few minutes earlier.
The woman who'd slammed a door in her face.
Die!
Sara charged without a second thought, screeching in fury as her legs ate up the ground between them with blinding speed, her claws flexed in preparation and poised beside her. Screams burst out from the other villagers, many of whom began running in the opposite direction - but it was too late for Suka, who didn't even have time to hold out a hand to protect herself.
Sara heard the frail woman's neck snap and grinned as her claws viciously crashed into the side of Suka's sunken face, ripping through bone and muscle and sending several of her teeth flying. Chunks of flesh tore from Suka's cheeks and chin and hung dripping from a few of Sara's claws. Suka's body crumpled to the ground and Sara stepped over it triumphantly when she immediately spotted her next victim: Mayor Clark.
A shiver of delight crawled up Sara's spine. She sprinted after him, a predator on the hunt. The bald man couldn't tear his panicked gaze away from her as he half-ran and half-stumbled backwards in a pathetic attempt at fleeing for his life. "Sara! Stop this, please! The villagers…I…we didn't mean to upset you like this!"
The Mayor scrunched his eyes shut and held out his hands in preparation for the final blow, but to his immense surprise, Sara halted right in front of him. He could smell the blood on her clothes and couldn't stop himself from retching as he slowly forced his eyes open to look at her.
She was breathing heavily, her frenzied eyes narrowed, her lips peeled back in a snarl. She stood there silently, as if waiting for him to beg for his life.
Mayor Clark steeled himself and began to speak, but was cut off by the feel of something sharp and blindingly painful shooting up through the base of his chin and piercing into his tongue.
"Silence," she hissed.
His mouth filled with tangy blood and he stammered a few disjointed syllables when he realized one of Sara's claws had come up through his chin and into his mouth. He howled in pain, a muffled, deformed sound, when she curled the tip of her finger that had embedded in his tongue as if motioning an invisible foe to come closer.
Sara tilted her head to one side and smirked, breathing a wicked chuckle. "It's this silver tongue of yours that made the deal with the Desians." Her voice was off - low, grimy. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth and down his chin, coating her hand in a slick warmth.
Her smirk slowly crept wider until she was grinning maniacally. "Fortunately, you won't be needing it anymore."
All at once, she ripped her finger out of his chin, shoved his head backwards, and sank her claws into his throat. She held there for a second, laughing at the bleating gurgle he cried, before finally jerking her hand back and taking a fistful of sinew and trachea with her.
His body dropped to the ground at her feet. She gave it one last look before raising her eyes and charging at her next victim, another neighbor who would pay for his crimes.
Roaring, she reared her hand back, claws poised to strike…but suddenly there was someone in front of her, and her spiked gauntlet caught on the gleaming blade he held before him in defense of the frightened man.
"What?" She leapt backwards a few meters to get a look at the hero. Dressed in royal blue, a head of spiky, shoulder-length auburn hair hid half his face. His deep garnet eyes were trained on her every movement and he kept his blade pointed at her, one strong arm outstretched before him.
He was obviously not a Desian, nor a Kozei villager. And she could sense from his confident stance that he was very skilled.
"Who are you?" she growled, flexing her claws.
It was now her turn to be startled when he came at her, sword drawn. She threw her arms up defensively and caught his blade on her spiked gauntlets, her demented chocolate eyes meeting his calm cinnamon ones. She glared at him over her crossed arms and tightened the metallic grip the spikes held on his sword.
He began to speak in a low voice, a faint glowing aura surrounding his tall frame: "O, gentle breeze… ease her pain."
Abruptly, he took a step back and let his sword drop to his side, those calculating eyes still fixed on her.
Sara froze in place. A tranquil, warm gust of wind ghosted across her skin. Still speckled with red blotches, her sun-darkened face began to pale. Her eyes widened and she choked out a sound of astonishment, both arms falling limp to her sides. Slumping to her knees, her head rolled forward languidly as an unseen force swept its way through her embroiled soul, taking with it every last drop of pain, hatred and anger.
She looked to the sky and gasped, as if this were the first breath she'd taken in ages. The force of her rage had dissolved into nothingness. Her body felt light and unburdened, her soul washed clean of its impurities. She gazed into the clouds and slowly began remembering where she was.
Lloyd, Genis, Colette and Raine jogged up to where Kratos stood before her. Kratos, who had seen his share of death, was unfazed by the decimated bodies strewn on the ground, but that was not the case for the others. Colette held her hands over her mouth as tears rolled freely down her cheeks. Raine turned from the sight, gripping her staff tightly as she fought to keep her stomach from turning over. Genis and Lloyd just stared with wide eyes, unable to look away.
Sara blinked to clear her gradually returning vision. Her earthen eyes had regained their normal softness, and they filled with confusion as she saw the group of five people standing before her.
"…Huh?"
She wondered idly why she'd been on her knees as she slowly stood, and she noticed that all of them save the auburn-haired man in front were looking past her with expressions of horror.
So she turned around to see what had their attention, and that's when she noticed the blood on her clothes, still damp. That's when she noticed that she was wearing her battle claws.
And that's when the memories flooded back to her in an incapacitating torrent – the feel of her claws sliding into flesh, the smell of blood as it spilled to the dusty ground, the faces – or lack thereof – of both Desians and Kozei natives as they took their final breaths.
Again, she returned to her knees, a strangled sound of despair leaking from her parted lips as her eyes darted from one body to the next, all of them with gaping slashes across their faces, necks or stomachs. One, two, three, four…four Desians lay dead, their bodies in various states of destruction, and lying just before her was…
Oh, Goddess Martel…she'd killed the mayor. Mayor Clark, who'd known her since she was a small girl, now lay a yard in front of her in a pool of his own blood with his throat torn out.
"N…No," Sara stammered through numb lips. He may have made a poor choice today, but he didn't deserve to die like this. And Suka, little frail Suka was off to her left, what was left of her face now lying in the dirt.
"Oh…Gods…" Her breath hitched in her chest as the first of the sobs came. Tears trickled down her face, carving little paths in the blood caked to her skin. Through their foggy haze, she saw Mikhail, and Tana strewn atop him in a macabre final embrace.
Sara looked down at her hands and almost vomited at the blood and bits of flesh that clung to her claws.
"What… what did I do?"
Vaguely, she heard one of the people behind her step up to her side. She didn't even flinch. They could've been there to kill her for all she cared right now. She would've preferred that, honestly…anything to take her away from this graveyard she'd made.
Instead, she spotted a pair of grey and white boots out of the corner of one teary eye, and heard that same smooth voice from before, the one that had broken her free of her fury.
"You were possessed," it said simply from somewhere high above her.
Her hands fell lifeless to the ground at her sides and she barely managed to stave off another violent wave of nausea.
"…Possessed?" she echoed, her voice raw and hollow. Her eyes stared ahead, unblinking.
Kratos looked down at the woman through choppy bangs. His sword now rested comfortably in the scabbard at his hip.
"When certain humans fill with an intense anger such as yours," he continued calmly, "it attracts the demons of the underworld who thrive on hatred and pain. One of them had taken control of your body." He paused for a moment, waiting for any sort of reaction out of her. It never came. "The spell I performed earlier forced it out of you."
Sara swallowed a lump in her sandy throat and managed to shake her head. "But…I-"
"It was not your fault."
At that, she came back to herself for just long enough to notice that Iona, Tarja and Ko'tenda were missing. Her sorrow would have to wait for a little while. The whole reason for all of this was because she'd wanted to protect them, and here she was on her knees, wallowing in her own pity while the Desians did gods-knew-what to them.
She rose unsteadily to her feet and took in a deep breath, and the feeling of air rushing into her lungs seemed to awaken her body. She looked at the tracks in the dirt that the Desians' vehicles had left. They led out of the village, towards the mountains in the distance.
"I have to go after them," she said mostly to herself, and forced her eyes not to look down as she stepped carefully around the mayor's body. She strode forward at a walk at first, then a jog as feeling blossomed in her legs, and finally a sprint, her muscles crying out in joy with each step.
It had to be a rescue. It couldn't be a mere body count.
Kratos narrowed his eyes as he watched her go.
Behind him, Genis took a tentative step forward. For the moment, the shock of so much death seemed to have worn off enough for him to speak. "She… she killed all those people."
Lloyd was beside him, shaking his head and trying in vain not to look at all the bodies. There was uncertainty in his tone, as if he were speaking as much to himself as to his friend. "Genis, you heard what Kratos said. That woman was possessed. She couldn't help it."
"I've…heard of such a thing before," Raine added, her confident voice almost rid of all its shakes. "It can only happen to certain people, and under the most extreme of circumstances."
"I feel sorry for her," Colette said out of nowhere, surprising the others and earning several startled looks. Her soulful blue eyes were still shiny with tears, but they were filled with sincerity. "She must feel terrible about what happened. All she wanted was to protect her dragon friends." Her hands clasped at her throat and she lowered her gaze, then added quietly: "I think… if it's not too much trouble… could we help her?"
The four of them stared at her open-mouthed. After a moment, it was Kratos who spoke first, with a slight, resigned bow. "If that is your wish, Chosen One."
Lloyd squared his shoulders and nodded in agreement, that same look of determination touching his boyish features. "Yeah. It seems like she could use some help right now. Great idea, Colette."
The blonde girl allowed herself a moment of joy at Lloyd's praise before Genis' voice ruined it. "But…what if she goes crazy again? On us this time?"
"I'll ensure she doesn't," Raine said thinly. "Now that I know what happened, I'll use my healing artes to keep us protected."
Admittedly, Lloyd had no clue as to what they were getting themselves into - but he would figure it out. He always did.
"All right. Let's go."