"We've been unable to contact any of her listed relatives. No. None at all."
"It's as if all her contacts just dropped off the face of the earth. Every number we've called, nada. We sent people to check out the address listed on the back of the photograph in her pocket, the house recently burned down with all its occupants."
"So young, and all alone."
"She was pregnant too."
"Was?"
"The trauma was too much. She miscarried."
"So-"
"She's awaking! Get the doctor here! NOW!"
Shana felt numb.
"This isn't right. Is it?" She mumbled to herself.
Yuji was dead.
Yuji was dead.
"YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI YUJI"
The words chased one another round and round in her mind.
And it was all her fault.
She had gotten careless. Proud. With Yuji at her side, there were none who could stand in their path.
It is the pebble that is not seen that trips you.
They had all forgotten. Years of peace had led to hubris. The Rinne were all exterminated, the Denizens of Guze had been forced into a compact which forbade the eating of humans. All was well.
With the sole exception of the fundamental flaw in the Reiji Maigo.
The barrier, sealing the Snake of the Festival, had weakened over time. Surging forth in a brutal wave of quicksilver flame, he burned his way through what remained of the seal.
Yuji was consumed from the inside, begging Shana to kill him, to end it all in a swift arc of her blade.
But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not to kill her lover. Despair stayed her hand, and in the brief moment of indecision, the Snake tore his way back into the corporeal world.
The war began anew, with the Snake at the head of the enemy. Millions of humans simply ceased to exist, without even noticing, their power of existence siphoned off to feed the war effort. The battles drew ever longer, for even though the forces under the Snake were individually much weaker and less talented then their opponents, they had superiority in sheer numbers, and simply overwhelmed their opponents in a wave of flesh. Having the most ingenious and devious Lord of Guze to marshal them and direct their wrath did not hurt either.
Left with no choice, no tactical solution to the conflict, Alastor manifested, along with Tiamat. The battle was violent, bloody. In terms of sheer power, they should have easily overpowered the Snake. However, he had no qualm sacrificing the lives of his troops to maintain his energy levels. In a final, underhanded move, he sent millions of the Residents into the human world, with only a command to indiscriminately feed. Alastor and Tiamat expended too much energy dealing with the Residents, and were slew from behind.
It was barely a month before the gaze of the Snake turned to the only Flame Haze still capable of bringing him down.
It wasn't hard to find her. Without the guiding energy of a Lord of Guze sustaining her, she was merely an empty vessel. Large and conspicuous. Killing her would probably have been a mercy, seeing as she would have burnt out in months, her own regenerative capabilities unable to maintain her energy needs. Weeks, if she exerted herself.
But mercy was not high on the Snake's priorities. He gave her a boost of energy, to keep her alive. Just to endure the pain he was about to inflict on her.
Words cannot describe the depraved things he made her do.
Finally, bored of playing with his new toy, he burnt her capability to regenerate Power of Existance out of her, dooming her to a slow death, and sent her to the human world.
Shana smiled to herself. "There really is no one left for me now, is there?"
Sitting up in bed, she summoned her blade.
There was a flash of silver, then a spray of red.