Thank you to those four who reviewed! If they didn't the story would likely have been dropped ^^' or experience a long, long delay. So please review and tell me what you think. Here's chap 2.
The sun bleed crimson as it began its descent beyond the horizon, setting the sky aflame with flagrant colors. Shadows stretched lazily on the forest floor, shifting as whispers of a breeze tickled the leaves clutching desperately to the woody branches hanging above. Quite abruptly, a man burst out from the shrubberies. He was panting heavily, eyes wild, scanning the surrounding area with the meticulous fright of a trapped beast. The man had a hand tightly pressed to his stomach, which was bleeding profusely, staining his fingers in thick dark red fluid. Scratches and various wounds were drawn over his body and in between the tears on his torn, tattered clothing. He stumbled a few steps forward, leaving red blossoming footprints in his wake.
Sobs and gasps of pain escaped from his lips when he finally collapsed onto the brown grass. Scarlet fluid seeped out of his body at a alarming rate; the bubbling shimmered in the fiery rays of the sunset. Still, despite this he continued to crawl forward, glancing back every so often in the direction he had came from with an expression of horror and dread. Exchanging the object held tightly in his free hand to be held his teeth, the man clawed his way along the small trail leading deeper into the darkening forest. Suddenly he stopped; slowly the man raised his head upwards.
"You know it isn't very polite to leave a party without informing the host." The monster admonished him.
Desperately, the man tried to back away from the creature that had materialized seemly out of thin air. He barely moved an few decimeters before the monster grabbed hold of his throat and forced him onto his feet, both supporting him and slowly strangling the man in the process. He stared at the creature in horror, hands scrabbling at the unyielding metallic arm and the even more obdurate grip. He wanted to cry out, to scream, to plead even, yet to do so he would have to release the single object held in his teeth, and for some unspecified reason, he couldn't do that. Maybe because his comrades' lives had all gone into protecting the said object, maybe because despite the situation his fidelity to their cause hadn't quite wavered yet, or maybe because he feared the consequences that would befall him should he betray…
Still, none of it mattered as the monster smirked at him, and without hesitancy pried his mouth open with ease taking the object and bouncing it playfully in its hand. In the process, it had deliberately broken the man's jaw and now watched with amusement as the man writhed in its grip before finally becoming still, a look of defeat eroding his eyes.
"Now dear exorcist, I've decided in honor of you being the last of my guests I will conduct a special party, just for you." Needle like teeth flashed as the monster grinned at the man. Inside its dark ruby eyes swirled tendrils of black smoke as it gazed at the exorcist kneeled before him, head fallen in anguish.
"… The last… Does that mean?" The man whispered softly.
"Correct. Your comrades were quite entertaining I must admit, especially that blond haired female, her screams were almost as sweet as the inside of her guts." The monster crackled, clutching at its scaly belly in mirth.
A flash of overwhelming anger seethed through the exorcist, with strength he didn't know he possessed the man stood up glaring with coiling abhorrence at the grotesque creation before him. "H-How could you… Lara.. Damn it! Damn it all! You monster!" He struggled to charge at the demon though he had no weapon, his innocence had been broken before he had fled. The exorcist had nothing.
Before he could move another step the akuma came towards him and snapped both of his legs. He cried out, collapsing, gasping in an overwhelming torrent of emotions and piercing sensations. Tears streamed down the man's face.
"Aren't you glad exorcist that you'll soon be able to see your comrades again? There's no need to thank me, but if you must, I would simply be delight if you could scream for me." The monster's stale breath stung the man's skin like acid.
"Never." The exorcist rasped.
"We'll see." With that the demon began its work, soon staining the forest floor with splashes of red in all shades and variations of the color, the final result was like a painting, if the akuma do say so itself, and quite a masterpiece too. Like the abstract art of a insane madman, and as for the music that accompanied, only the sweetest symphony of course.
"Ah…" Neah groaned and collapsed on the ground, dead.
Well, not literally, more semantically. But to say the truth, Neah almost wished he was, really. It had been a week and uncle seemed adamant to work him to death. During the past week he had traveled all over the seven continents, and a couple of islands too near South America too. Well, maybe the tropical islands weren't too bad all considered, especially the girls… Never mind, the point was that he was overworked, and Neah hate to be overworked in any aspect. Sure, the ark made things a lot easier and shortened travel time considerably, but still, uncle should have had at least let him take his brother with him.
Neah sighed. Cross that out. He couldn't take Mana with him even if he had wanted to, Mana was too much of a … big softie… For things like innocence hunting. He scoffed, thus of course uncle had deemed it necessary to insert his older brother's share of work unto him, and really what did he do to deserve that?
A gentle nudge on his forehead altered him to the only being that cared about his general welfare in his opinion. Neah smiled and patted the little golden golem affectionately.
"Hey Tim, you hungry yet?"
In reply the said golem, Tim campy, revealed its rows of pointed teeth and mercilessly bit into one of his master's finger with a snap. Cursing, Neah managed to pry his already swollen finger from those deadly jaws and sent a withering glare in the direction of his naughty golem, Tim only grinned rebelliously at him. Cross that one out too. No one cares for his general welfare, not even his own creation apparently.
"I'm not food Tim. Though I get your point." Neah sighed again, running a hand through his thick curly hair. "Well, think of the bright side, as Mana always say. This would be the last piece of innocence we had to collect, then we can go home. Now, if only that akuma can come back…"
Looking evidently bored, Neah stretched out on the grass lazily, listening to the wind and playing with Tim campy by pulling its wings up in weird positions. He watched the clouds drift by in white fluffs, he chewed absent-mindedly on blades of grass, he twiddled with his fingers, he sang a song to Tim campy, he played guessing games with Tim again, and finally somewhere in the middle of it all Neah went into a dreamy sleep. In the dream he was back on one of the tropical islands and drinking fruit juice while watching pretty girls stroll by in scant clothing that the locals call "bikinis", truly, one of the most inspiring innovations of mankind.
"My Lord?"
"…ahun…"
"My Lord… I am finished."
"Ghun-hun…"
"My Lord are you awake?"
Neah slowly fluttered open his amber eyes.
"Jesus!" And with that the akuma was sent flying backwards, Tim campy whom hovered near fortunately dodged just in time.
Neah had a hand over his thumping chest, opening one's eyes with a akuma's face hovering in a unnecessarily intimate distance from one's own was obviously not good for one's heart. Seriously, if Mana saw him, he would no doubt be snickering away. The boy growled in annoyance at the thought.
His gaze strayed towards the setting sun, like a fresh open wound bleeding across the ocher sky. It appeared that he had slept for quite a while, more than he intended. Not that he's complaining, it was a pretty nice dream as far as dreams go, a welcome deviation from the nightmares he usual get.
The akuma, having managed to dislodge itself from a nearby, much less fortunate tree, kneeled on the ground in front of its young master. "I apologize for startling you." The creature said in a actual remorseful tone.
"The understatement of the century." Neah retorted dryly, "If you knew what I was dreaming about…" He began, thoughts drifting towards a very pretty girl who was about to do something pleasantly awesome with him with her lips. Yhea, it would not have turned out well. It was a good thing he woke when he did or else he would have been the laughing stock of the family for the rest of the month.
The boy shook his head, clearing away the sneering faces of his so-called siblings, "Well, do you have it? The innocence?"
The akuma nodded, rising from its kneeling position it dropped a small green crystal into Neah open hand. He smiled, fiddling with the stone in apathetic amusement before enclosing his slender fingers around the glowing object and crushing it. When he opened his hand again white dust like particles wafted away at a sudden autumn zephyr, seemingly to disappear within the torrent of shifting air.
"Ashes to ashes. Finally." Neah smiled brilliantly at the thought of going home, sure the mansion tend to be noisy, the result of having too many obstreperous occupants gathered in one place. Nevertheless, he couldn't wait to see Mana and tell him stories about his adventures. The thought of his older brother's awe struck face at his tales of hunting exorcists and finding innocence was enough to lift his mood. However, before that… His stomach growled in complaint. Tim campy, having heard the grievance, nodded vigorously in consensus. Neah laughed.
"Yo Level three, do you know of any towns nearby that you haven't destroyed where I could find some food?"
"Master, do you not wish to dine at the mansion?" The akuma asked, slightly perplexed as to why young master wanted to eat with mere humans.
"Rather I am not looking forward to returning to my constant diet of my dear uncle's hamburgers just quite yet. So? Surely you didn't destroy all the towns in the vicinity?" The boy narrowed his honey-gold eyes.
"O-Of course not, only one town was destroyed. I do believe that north of here is a major human town."
"That's good! Well, you can go back if you wish. By the way, did the plan work well?"
The monster smiled at its master, "It worked very well My Lord, I was able to eliminate all the exorcists by myself with your plan. I've also left the pieces as you've specifically instructed, everything will soon be in motion."
"Delightful!" The British boy smirked.
"I am sure The Earl will be really pleased." The akuma nodded in accord, bowing as the young master dismissed him with a flick of his hand.
Neah turned around, beckoning to Tim campy as a crystalline window of light shimmered into existence before them humming with currents of energy, other fragments of light hovered around the gateway like multiple shattered pieces of stained glass. Abruptly, the boy stopped just short of reaching into the pane of radiant light. Tim campy twirled around in confusion. The akuma too, raised its head questioningly.
"By the way… you wouldn't happen to have some money on you right?" Neah turned round to glance slightly embarrassed at the akuma.
"… I have a few collected trinkets including a silver cross from the last exorcist I eliminated. Will that be sufficient My Lord?" The akuma supplied humbly, at the boy's eager nod it approached him and handed the substitutes for money into its masters' coat pockets. Then, respectfully it backed away with a bow.
"Thanks, I own you one akuma!" Neah said, satisfied. He really didn't want to attempt another eat-and-run experiment as the last attempt had ended quite painfully in his childhood memories. "Oh, and by the way, if you tell uncle about me forgetting my wallet again." The boy made a slicing motion across his neck.
The akuma swallowed.
"Just so we're clear." With that the boy hopped gracefully into the window of light, followed by Tim campy as a flutter of gold. The gateway shattered as they disappeared, its translucent fragments drifting in thin air for a moment before vanishing altogether, leaving only sparks of light like flickering embers spiraling towards the twilight sky.
In each chapter the story will develop a little and the viewpoint tend to shift to the person who will develop the story the most. I hope you guys like Neah's personality, since I am not too sure about his personality due to his limited screen time but he seemed the laid-back, more flamboyant type. :D