Futuristic Warrior From the Past
By: Patriot1776 and Gwydon
Chapter VI
The day had started off pleasant and was continuing to be pleasant. Rin was singing and dancing through the flowers of the field as the group traveled. The sky was a perfect blue, not a cloud in sight, and the sun shone brightly.
Sesshomaru's mind however was not anywhere near these pleasant things at the moment. Deep down, he wished they were, but at the moment, matters more pressing were the focus of his attention, like finding out who had entered the borders of his lands without permission. He wasn't that concerned however. His vassals had known well that when a new kind of intruder appeared, they were to instead of killing them, report them to him so he could investigate the newcomers himself. They had told him that these intruders didn't seem all that powerful, just incredibly strange. That tidbit had been intriguing to him. He was going to take care of these trespassers more out of the curiosity of seeing them than anything else.
Behind him, he started to hear Rin's voice fade some.
"Rin, you must not fall behind. Get on Ah-Uh's back." Sesshomaru emotionlessly commanded, not sparing a glance back at her.
"Yes milord." Rin said, then climbing up onto the back of the two-headed dragon.
"Milord, why not let your soldiers take care of this? They said that they aren't very strong. To take care of them yourself is simply a waste of time and energy." Jaken then said. Sesshomaru stopped, turned, and then gave Jaken a cold stare that shut him up immediately.
"How many times have I told you not to question my motives?" Sesshomaru asked, resting his hand on Tokijin's hilt. Jaken's eyes went wide immediately.
"Forgive me milord! Please forgive me!" Jaken then said frantically, bowing several times rapidly. Sesshomaru took his hand from the cursed sword and let it drop back down to his side as he turned around and continued on. He hadn't gone ten feet however, when a dark, yet weak, aura hit his senses, and he stopped. "Milord? What is it?" Jaken then asked.
"Rin, stay here with Ah-Un. Jaken, keep watch." Sesshomaru then ordered as he conjured up his floating cloud and raced off into the nearby woods.
"Now where is he off to?" Jaken then asked with a grumble.
The way this aura felt told Sesshomaru he had found the intruders. It felt strangely different, but it wasn't strong enough yet for him to discern why. His senses worked like a built in compass, leading him directly to where the intruders were located. He approached a small clearing in the forest, and saw them through the bushes.
Five dark brownish, humanoid looking creatures and two of the Bull Demons were in the meadow, wandering around as if they were investigating the area. Their auras told Sesshomaru right away that they were oni, but they were a completely different kind of oni. Their auras seemed very dark and otherworldly.
'This is not good. A darker force, darker than that of that pathetic half-breed Naraku, is being unleashed upon the land.' Sesshomaru thought grimly. He raised his hand up and conjured up his poison whip. Even though their auras were the darkest he'd ever encountered, he could also tell these oni were pathetically weak. Soiling Tokijin with their blood would not be worth the effort. He cracked the whip once in the air to get their attention and walked out into the meadow.
The oni stopped and turned in the direction of the sound and saw him. The brownish hominids let out a growl and started toward him, the Bull Demons just snorting and following suit. They didn't even make it ten feet when with just three quick lashes with the whip, they were all cut up into ribbons. They then screamed and entered their death throes, turning into the grass-bare spots on the ground marking their defeat, but not death.
Sesshomaru was confused. He could still sense their auras, but the monsters were no longer there. He was about to walk up and investigate the spots where they had fallen, when he suddenly felt Tenseiga pulse once.
"You wish to be drawn, Tenseiga?" he then asked. The sword pulsed again. Sesshomaru drew the revered heirloom and held it up to his face. Instead of glowing the normal blue, the sword was now glowing a dim white. "Interesting. What could this mean?" The sword pulsed yet again, and began to gently pull toward one of the bared spots on the ground where the oni had fallen. "A new use for you? Let's find out." Sesshomaru casually strode up to the closest spot and gently touched the Tenseiga to the spot. There was a loud screech and the spot began to shrink and dissolve, the grass re-growing immediately. Sesshomaru repeated the act on the other spots, until they were all gone. "Tenseiga, it unfortunately appears you are going to get a lot of use in this manner in the foreseeable future." Sesshomaru said as he resheathed the revered fang of his father. He then made his way back to Jaken and Rin.
"How many were there milord? I guess they weren't much trouble since you weren't gone long." Jaken said, bowing as he approached.
"Lord Sesshomaru, can we stop here for awhile so I can pick flowers?" Rin then asked.
"Rin, you and Ah-Un proceed back to the castle immediately and wait for my return. Jaken, you will accompany me." Sesshomaru ordered. The little girl looked confused, but nodded.
"Don't forget to come back Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin shouted back cheerfully as Ah-Un rose up into the air and flew off.
"Lord Sesshomaru, what's going on?" Jaken asked as he and Sesshomaru began to head east.
"Jaken, prepare yourself. The next few days and possibly weeks are going to be very trying." Sesshomaru answered his question.
-
Galahad woke up and looked around, seeing the first rays of dawn coming in through an open window. He was still in the daimyo's mansion, as well the others, as far as he could tell. He stretched some to work out the knots in his body. The wound had completely healed up, no scar even visible. He went outside to find himself a nice quiet spot to begin morning prayer. A little while later, he finished and went back into the mansion and saw the others were just getting to breakfast. He sat down and pulled out the laser tool he used to sharpen his sword and adjusted it. He then got out some metal shards and started using the tool and shards to patch the holes in his armor. The others saw this and started watching in bewilderment as he welded metal.
"Just what kind of a warlock are you?" the daimyo asked, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
"This is not witchcraft, mind you. It's metallurgy. I am simply repairing my armor, although I would rather have better materials, for it's not as strong now." Galahad then replied. InuYasha then looked at Kagome.
"Kagome, do they have tools like that in your time?" he then asked.
"Sort of, but only in big, massive factories where they make stuff. But my era's equivalents of what he's using are so big they take up several rooms, consume huge amounts of power, and mostly are used on big, thick, slabs of steel." she replied.
"Steel? They don't use…. Never mind, you probably don't know how to forge it." Galahad then said.
"We've got some stuff made out of Titanium, but they're very, very expensive." Kagome then said.
"Why not use fission lasers? That'll heat it up enough." Galahad responded. Everybody other than Kagome was now completely lost.
"Fission lasers? The only kind of fission I know of happens in nuclear reactors!" Kagome said.
"Yeah, nuclear lasers." Kagome eyes bugged out.
"What? We don't have lasers that powerful! And what about contamination?" she then asked, shocked.
"Never mind. You live in the dark ages, its too hard to explain." Everybody else was ignoring them now. Just then the door to the room slid open hard, banging against the wall, and one of the daimyo's vassals rushed in.
"Milord! Milord! Terrible news! A village just across the northern border has been completely desecrated!" he shouted in a panic voice.
"Desecrated? How?" The daimyo then said very seriously.
"All the men were beheaded, the women gutted like fish, while the children were stabbed in the back and had slit throats! It was very gruesome!"
"What about blood? Was there blood? Answer me!" Galahad snapped in a very commanding tone, shooting to his feet, surprising the daimyo. That stopped the vassal, and he rubbed his chin for a moment, as if thinking, then said with his voice quavering:
"Now that you mention it, t-t-there was no blood, and all the wounds were c-c-c-cauterized!" Everybody's eyes opened at that, and Galahad cocked his head and looked at the daimyo. Shippo started shaking and wimpering, climbing into Kagome's sleeping bag and barely peeking out.
"This, right here, was the reason why those oni appeared. Someone slaughtered the village, drained the blood of the villagers, and then used it in a summoning ritual." Galahad then paused, then gritted his teeth and snarled softly. "There is a dark one among us." he then said with an edge of rage to his voice.
"How can you be sure of what you speak of?" The daimyo then asked.
"Because the same thing happened to my people, except it was by the thousands. We must seek out this blasphemous heretic!" Galahad began to suit up.
"You're saying this black priest, or whoever the hell he is, is the one behind those oni attacks?" InuYasha then asked. Galahad nodded. InuYasha then gritted his teeth too. "For once, I agree with you. We can't be going after Naraku with these oni roaming around. Besides, this madman needs to be stopped." he then said.
"Galahad, this is completely new. I don't know of any native black magics, human or demon, that would require human sacrifices in the manner you speak of. You have any idea of who could be behind this?" Miroku then asked.
"Well, I've got two guesses. Either someone has been severely possessed and is now running around as Lucifer's puppet, or one of my kind has fallen. If the latter is true, then we are facing a formidable foe."
"Who is this 'Lucifer' you speak of?" the daimyo then asked.
"The one called Lucifer is the Prince of Darkness, the master of Hell, otherwise known as Satan. He is the arch enemy of all who live." Shippo then let out a small squeal then buried himself further in the sleeping bag, not showing any of himself.
"I think we need to go to this village, and look for clues of where this madman headed next." Sango then said.
"My vassal will lead you there." the daimyo then said. The vassal's jaw dropped to the floor. "Even though this is not within my borders, it could easily spill over into my territories. I implore you to put a stop to this."
"Let's get going then. The longer this bloodthirsty maniac is still breathing, the more people will die." InuYasha then said. They left immediately, the vassal joining them, but he was still a little shaken about going back.
They traveled for the rest of the day. As they were walking, Miroku struck up a conversation with Galahad about the Prince of Darkness.
"Where exactly did this Lucifer come from?" Miroku asked.
"Believe it or not, Lucifer was originally a creation of Yahweh. He was one of Yahweh's top angels, alongside the Archangels." Galahad replied.
"He actually used to be one of the light?" Miroku asked, very intrigued now.
"But Lucifer soon got the idea that he could do Yahweh's job better. Yahweh did not agree with this at all, and ordered him out of Heaven. Lucifer did not comply and began to gather followers, planning a revolution instead. Yahweh then called on Archangel Michael to gather the Holy Angels and banish him from Heaven by force."
"So at one time there was actually a war in Heaven?"
"You could say that, but it was beyond comprehension. It was like a war among gods." Miroku shuddered heavily at that.
"But if he was once of the light, and he just wanted to take over Heaven, why did he abandon the ways of mercy and truth?" he then asked.
"That goes back to what caused him to rebel against Yahweh in the first place. Lucifer was one of Yahweh's most perfect creations. He may have actually been over made. He became self aware of his own potential, and pride in himself began to manifest. He started to think more highly of himself than of Yahweh, and that's what caused him to think he could do a better job than Him. After he was cast out of Heaven, he began to loathe and hate Yahweh and his ways, so he abandoned all connections with them and began to do the complete opposite. And there you have it. That's how the Prince of Darkness came to be."
"But if he was one of Kami-sama's creations, why didn't Kami-sama just destroy him right then and there for rebelling against Him?" Kagome then asked.
"That is not Yahweh's way. He has chose to let it slide for now, but His patience is not infinite with this matter, and eventually Lucifer's punishment will come full circle. Yahweh's patience is beyond comprehension with most things, but it is not so with this." Galahad answered.
"Is Kami-sama trying to give Lucifer a chance at redemption? Is that why He hasn't dealt out His Judgement yet?" InuYasha then asked.
"That is a possibility, but even I do not know."
"This story I have just heard sounds very familiar. It follows the same path I have seen happen to many a good ruler." the vassal then spoke up. Everybody then looked over at him. "My lord is different somehow. It may have been because he had to actually earn his position. Most daimyos I've seen inherited their domain's throne. They were decent before they took power. When they took power however, the power corrupted them and went to their heads. Now I see where that came from." the vassal finished, shaking his head sadly.
It was then that they reached the desecrated village. At first glance, it seemed like a ghost town, with none of the huts and other buildings damaged in any way. But soon enough they began to see the corpses littering the streets, their faces twisted in agony. Miroku stopped and said a very lengthy prayer, everybody else but Galahad shuddering. Shippo ran behind Kagome and seemed to glue himself to her leg. She reached down, picked him up and began to cradle him to her shoulder, patting his back. They proceeded forward. The daimyo's page meanwhile, his job done and nerves shot, turned around and fled off in the opposite direction.
Galahad was looking at the bodies, scanning each one carefully. Ones that still had heads with eyes open he closed. At one particular corpse, he stopped. It was a headless man. He knelt down and looked at the charred skin, flesh, and bone that was once his neck, and examined it. InuYasha walked up.
"See something?" he asked. Galahad didn't answer. He simply reached down, picked up the corpse by the ankle and shook it madly, then dropping it. Miroku ran up.
"Have you no respect for the dead!" he asked with a tinge of anger.
"Calm thyself, tainted monk. This man was wicked anyway. He is burning eternally in Hell now, so it doesn't matter. I was checking for any blood in the corpse. There was none, so this is obviously the work of a fallen. No one possessed could drain bodies as well as this." Galahad replied. Miroku was taken aback some by his 'tainted monk' insult. InuYasha smirked at him. Sango meanwhile, was examining the body of a child.
"Why were the children slain in this fashion, stabbed in the back then their throats slit?" she asked, grimacing. Both her and Kagome were also close to tears at the sight of so many dead children. Shippo was already sobbing, more out of fear than anything else.
"Humans are at their purest during childhood. Using the same brutality on the children as the adults would have harmed the fallen one in some way. He had to slay them in a painless way to avoid self injury. Do not grieve for them so much, they did not feel any pain, and they are with Yahweh in the land of Eternity." Galahad said. His words didn't seem to have any effect on Kagome and Sango. InuYasha however, was now growling fiercely.
"Even though this guy is a little more merciful on pups than Naraku is, still, the reason he did it is just as heinous. I want to find this guy and rip his living heart out with my claws while he's still alive!" InuYasha then yelled angrily.
"InuYasha, your emotions will be your downfall. You must learn to control them if you wish to survive. This bothers me greatly too, but I have learned to put the anger aside. It amounts to nothing but clouding judgment." Galahad said. Suddenly his head snapped to the west, and he was back to his feet in an instant. "Someone is coming. Their presence is similar to…yours." he then said, looking at InuYasha. That clued InuYasha in immediately on who it was.
"Sesshomaru! What the hell is he doing here?" he then said, turning as well as putting his hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt. Everybody else turned as InuYasha sprinted off.
"Sesshomaru?" Galahad asked.
"InuYasha's full-demon half-brother." Kagome then said.
"They must not get along well."
"You don't know the half of it." Sango then said, rolling her eyes.
InuYasha was speeding through the village, nearing the woods when he caught Sesshomaru's scent. It was then that Sesshomaru stepped out into the clearing. Tetsusaiga was out in an instant and InuYasha leaped up to try and bring the sword down on his half-brother's head. Sesshomaru didn't look amused at all. With graceful ease, Tokijin was out and he deflected the Tetsusaiga. With a flick of his arm, he sent InuYasha flying off into the woods.
"Little brother, I have no time for your barbarous antics today." the Demon Lord of the West said as he strode onward, sheathing Tokijin. Entering the village, Sesshomaru stopped at the sight of all the bodies strewn everywhere. Looking further, he saw his brother's usual retinue, but this time with a very odd and very out-of-place newcomer. He strode up them, Miroku and Sango readying their weapons. Galahad crossed his arms, his right hand placed stealthily right above his gladius. Sesshomaru looked over at Miroku and Sango. "Down with your weapons. I didn't come to fight." he then said.
"Speak thy name." Galahad then addressed him. Sesshomaru looked him over, even more mystified, but his face kept it's stoic demeanor. He noticed that the strange, white haired human seemed to regard him in the same sense, his face in a similar cold visage. Sesshomaru immediately then knew there was more to this mortal than meets the eye.
"Since you are a foreigner and obviously new to this land, I will tell you who I am. I am Sesshomaru, Demon Lord of the Western Lands. It is strange indeed to see someone like you with my half-breed brother's vassals." Sesshomaru said.
"I am called Galahad. Take note that I am not one of InuYasha's vassals. I stand above that foul barbarian." Galahad then said. That made Kagome look at Galahad with a little bit of a cold stare.
"I see we have something in common." Sesshomaru then said. Galahad then leaned to the side as if looking beyond Sesshomaru's shoulder.
"Are you accompanied?" Galahad then asked. Just then InuYasha broke back out of the woods, Jaken just behind him. Sesshomaru could feel that Tetsusaiga was still out. He then turned, drawing Tokijin as he did and easily stopped InuYasha's slash.
"What the hell are you doing here Sesshomaru!" InuYasha shouted as him and Sesshomaru then began to spar with one another. Sesshomaru knocked the Tetsusaiga out of InuYasha's hands, sending it flying, and then did something none of them were expecting. He sheathed Tokijin and delivered a right cross to InuYasha's jaw that would have shattered a normal human's jawbone. InuYasha collapsed to the ground, seeing stars.
"If you would think for once little brother and ask before attacking, I'd tell you more easily. Understand again that I am here for a different reason than you think." Sesshomaru responded, then turning back to Galahad.
"You saw them too, didn't you?" Galahad said, seeming to read Sesshomaru's mind.
"You know them?" Sesshomaru then asked.
"I know them better than you may think. I have fought against them in war. This is what created them." Galahad then said, motioning to the bodies. "They were executed and their blood drained. Someone is summoning them from the depths of Hell. Apparently they are after me."
"I can tell that they are pure evil incarnated. Even though slaughtering a village like this is not above Naraku's ways, he is not involved in this. I sense a darker force at hand here." Sesshomaru then said, walking up and looking at some of the corpses. Kagome and the others walked up too, getting ready to take the corpses away to bury them, when Sesshomaru put his hand out to stop them, and shook his head at them.
Galahad, meanwhile, walked around to where he could see Sesshomaru's other sword, the Tenseiga. He was sensing a different kind of power from it, not the same dark feeling he was sensing from the Tokijin. Sesshomaru reached down and placed his hand on Tenseiga's hilt and drew it, and held it over a corpse. His eyes then narrowed.
"Something strange has happened here. I cannot see the underlings who normally come to take the soul away." Sesshomaru then said.
"That's because the souls have been stolen, that is, except for the souls of the children. They have gone onward." Galahad then said.
"What! You didn't say that earlier!" The others then said. Sesshomaru was a little doubtful, and swung the Tenseiga over the body. He then believed Galahad's words after the body did not heal up and come back to life.
"You speak the truth. Explain it." Sesshomaru then said, turning back to Galahad and sheathing the Tenseiga.
"That's because the one who did this has a Soul Cube, and it has taken the souls from the bodies." Galahad answered.
"What is this Soul Cube? I have never heard of it." Sesshomaru then inquired.
"This is a Soul Cube." Galahad pulled his Soul Cube off his belt and held it up. "If you have one of these artifacts, when you slay enemies, their souls are sucked into the cube, charging it. Once you have gathered enough, you hold the power to destroy anyone or anything on the face of the Earth. That includes you, but you are much more civilized, and have not earned such punishment. The Soul Cube could destroy this Naraku I keep hearing of in one strike, nothing remaining."
Sesshomaru squinted his eyes as he looked at the Soul Cube. He could sense an aura of pure light around it, and could almost hear the snarls of contained oni spirits within it. Jaken then ran up and awed at the devastation.
"My, my. There was definitely a massacre here. But why have we come here milord?" the little toad imp said up to Sesshomaru.
"These humans were sacrificed to summon the new kinds of intruders I fought, though not the specific ones I destroyed. More powerful ones were summoned apparently with so many sacrifices here." Sesshomaru said as he continued to glance around. Jaken then noticed Galahad.
"Who is this strange looking mortal? He looks pretty formidable milord." Jaken then asked.
"Do not threaten him Jaken, if you wish to keep your head." Sesshomaru answered.
"Lord Sesshomaru, you have seen the oni, I can tell, but why are you here?" Galahad then asked.
"A few of them, apparently the rabble of them, trespassed onto my lands. Anytime a newcomer who has never been encountered before enters my lands, I confront them myself to see who and what they are before killing them. I've come here investigating what they are and why they have started appearing. So they are coming after you? Who do you believe is summoning them?" came the answer.
"I believe another one of my kind now walks the land, but has fallen into the darkness. I came here looking to test my theory, and now I shall begin hunting him."
"It appears then we share similar reasons then for finding this abomination, as you call it." Sesshomaru then said.
"Sesshomaru, if you've now gotten what you came for, why don't you just get the hell out of here!" InuYasha shouted. Galahad and Sesshomaru both gave him an emotionless stare that seemed to tell him to 'shut up'. InuYasha just growled, with some hidden nervousness from being stared down by Sesshomaru and Galahad.
"I have a general idea of where he could be. Do you wish to join me?" Galahad then said to Sesshomaru.
"I do not require any assistance. I do not forge alliances or make deals of any kind." Sesshomaru replied. Galahad nodded.
"Very well, then. We shall consider ourselves neutral towards each other." he then said.
"Come Jaken, our business is finished here." Sesshomaru addressed the toad, and proceeded to leave to the east.
"Right behind you milord! Don't leave me behind!" Jaken shouted as he struggled to catch up. They all watched them until they had disappeared through the trees. Kagome then looked at Galahad.
"Are we going with you to hunt this 'fallen one'?" she asked.
"No, this is my personal vendetta. Besides, he would butcher you all without mercy and your souls would be trapped and tormented in his Soul Cube until he used it. I will stay long enough to help bury the dead here, then I shall take my leave." he responded, his voice now deadly serious.
"Fine by us. At least those strange oni won't be following us around anymore and we can get back to hunting Naraku." InuYasha then said with a smirk.
"Don't be so sure. If they are planning another invasion, then you will face them again, whether you like it or not." Galahad then stated.
"Keh. We beat those we fought earlier. We can handle 'em." Galahad then looked down at his feet and shook his head. They then proceeded to bury the bodies. When Miroku walked up to the fresh graves to give them their final rites, Galahad shoved him aside.
"This work is not to be done by one tainted as you are. Leave this to me." Galahad said sternly. Miroku, shocked, started to motion like he was going to expose his Kazaana, when in a blur Galahad grabbed his wrist and twisted it up, Miroku now grunting in pain. "I am already pissed off as it is. Don't make me tear your arm from its socket." Miroku's face then went white as all the blood drained in fear. The others, except InuYasha were utterly speechless. InuYasha was close to laughing. Galahad then let go of Miroku's arm and kneeled in front of the graves. He started to chant in his native tongue, then motioned with his hands in what Kagome saw was a similar fashion to how those of the Catholic faith did, and then began to bow to each one of the graves. His work finished, Galahad then got up, turned and saluted to them, turned in place and strode off. As he disappeared into the dense growth, these words were heard from him:
"Do not attempt to follow me, for my foe is far beyond your skill."