Ash picked up Soul who struggled for a few moments but eventually became too weak to resist. Maka looked to Ash stubbornly. "Where are you taking him?"
Ash answered her without stopping. "To that super-high, muckity-muck Lord of Death you guys have. This little guy's been bitten and, from the looks of things, he's ready to turn into a deadite at any moment."
Death the Kid suddenly wore a face of sadness which at some point transitioned to anger. "Soul was bitten? Black*Star!"
"What?" answered the clueless assassin.
The Shinigami's face grew red as he drew Liz and Patty once again and unleashed a flurry of attacks on Black*Star. "Soul has been our friend for years now at this academy! As a result of your blunder, his soul may be lost forever to the Demon Gods!"
Scolding no longer, Kid combined his partners as they grew and connected together. The two pistols became a large machine with electricity circulating around it. "DEATH CANON!"
The canon began charging to maximum blast, Liz and Patty counting off the percentages.
Ash was no longer surprised by what happened in this world, so instead of simply staring at the sight, he stepped between them. "Ok, alright, we all get the kid's an idiot. Now can we just fight together instead of against each other? We have an army to take on, people! Are you Grim Reapers or are you mice?"
Kd gradually disarmed his weapon as Liz and Patty took on their human forms once again. Kid almost whispered, "My apologies. After such adventures, friends are dear to me. I do not wish to delay our actions any further."
Tehri eyes trailed to Maka who was sitting at Soul's side once again. The group joined her, and Ash leaned closer to the infected boy. "How're ya feelin'?"
"Not so cool … but, I don't feel evil or anything."
Ash smirked. "I doubt you know what that would feel like.
A guilty glimmer crossed Soul's eyes, thinking of the demon inside of him, the black blood. Soul began to wonder how how the wound would react with his blood. He wondered, as well as Ash was inside, why the infection was taking so long in the first place. Soul reasoned that perhaps, on some level, his blood was working to protect him. What worried him most was the little demon inside of him. It hadn't spoken a word. Nothing was attempting to suck him into madness. For a moment, it came as a relief. However, now that he was free, Soul felt as if he was going to die.
Soul finally answered, "And you do?"
Ash stood up, Maka's eyes on him as well as Soul's. Rubbing the back of his neck, he responded, "This one camping trip, my friends and I went to a cabin in the woods for the weekend and … it took them. My girlfriend. My sister. My best friend. Everybody. I started to turn evil myself. I stopped it by cutting off my infected hand."
A wave of pity came over the reapers, Black*Star and Death the Kid glancing to each other in a silent truce.
Soul started to stutter, "B-but we can't cut out my stomach!"
Ash shook his head. "Ok, it doesn't seem to be moving that fast for whatever reason. Now, uh, which way was Lord Death?"
Liz sighed. "He lives in another realm. We contact him by dialing his number on something. Patty?"
"Yes!"
The younger sister bounded over to the pane of glass on a nearby convenience store window. On it, she drew the picture of a giraffe.
Ash shook his head in his palm. "The number, lady?" He turned to the rest. "And where are the adults? I can't babysit forever."
Liz interrupted. "The bunch of us are sixteen and seventeen, you jerk!"
Maka shook her head and answered, "After the defeat of Asura, many of the senior members of the DWMA – my father, Proffessor Stein, Miss Marie, well, everyone – they all were forced to travel to different corners of the globe to make sure that the Madness has been forced out of humanity."
Ash rolled his eyes back. "Ok … I'll bite … what's 'the Madness'?"
Kid answered him, walking up from behind. "It was what it was … Madness. At the rise of Asura, humankind fell in chaos. It infected our own, though not as much as ordinary humans. Some of it was caused by Asura's very presence, others by the spread of the black blood."
Soul flinched at the mention, but no one noticed. He shook his head, gradually stood, and walked over to Patty, giving her a light shove. "Let me do it."
42 – 42 – 564
The pane of glass glowed brightly and soon Lord Death was visible once again. "Hello? Oh, hi, kids! I hope everything is going well."
Ash interjected, "Yeah, just about as well as a prostate exam."
Maka rushed to the God. "Soul was bitten, sir. And the deadites have made their way to the academy."
"They have? Oh my. That is a problem. I would go down to help, but seeing as how we're short-handed at the moment, I will have to care for Soul myself as well as direct the others to prevent the return of the Madness. Mr. Williams, you are confident you can defeat the infestation, correct?"
"Well, yeah."
"Good. My students are fully capable of assisting you. I'll send for Soul. His supernatural resistance as a soul eater may be helping him, but the fact that he hasn't changed yet is still remarkable."
Soul smirked, "Glad I could be so cool to impress you, sir."
Kid walked behind Maka, Liz and Patty armed on him. "Maka, without your weapon your strength is considerably lessened. Are you sure you want to continue?"
She nodded.
Black*Star held his arms at rest behind his head , walking nearly relaxed, blowing air in an attempt to whistle. Kid looked back to him in a wave of disgust. Maka looked away as well. Black*Star began to grasp that they had something on their minds, but he still was not taking the hint. "So, where are we heading again?"
Ash looked to him, annoyed. "We're in your school right now. Judging by the swirling, ominous purple clouds, this is where the girl flew off to remake the castle that houses her army. It's strange. Should've seen a shitload of deadites by now."
As if on cue, a small army surrounded them. Ash smirked, "Wow, these guys were smart enough to have a strategy. Kudos to the chick, then."
Ash and Kid sprung into battle, using their signature weapons to blast holes through the undead. Ash tossed Maka his shotgun as he was making use of the chainsaw. The force of the blasts often took her aback, but, moving quickly, she adapted to the new weapon. Black*Star relied on his skills as an assassin to punch and kick holes into his enemy. Miraculously, the boy did not get bitten.
In the distance, a deadite yelled, "Death to the Promised One!" Ash used his chainsaw against it in defense, splitting it completely in half. One half of the creature grabbed the Necronomicon from Ash's belt. Kid shot his weapons after it, but it was too late. The army was swarming in, filling in the gaps too quickly for the men to make their way through to the cursed text.
Ash cursed loudly, though it was mumbled by the attacks and constant echo of "I'll swallow your soul!" There was nothing left right now but to fight. A person's shriek broke those screams. Black*Star turned his attention to a person in a black robe with short pink hair. A black sword with an enormous mouth was the child's defense as it quivered at the sight that surrounded it.
"I don't know how to deal with this!"
