Montmorency, Guiche and Kirche were currently sitting around a fire on stumps of earth created by the earth mage, the sun had recently set and with it brought a wave of cold, in response, the group worked together and built a fire while they waited for the other group to return.
The group sat in silence, the only sounds to be heard were the subtle sounds of the water moving, the sounds of crickets chirping in the breeze, the crackle of the fire and the occasional stomach growl.
Although they sat in silence, the group had a very clear understanding of each other, they were worried. Elves were no laughing matter as it was said that you needed at least a hundred mages in order to beat a single elf and the people who went were a single square class mage, a triangle wind mage, and a failed mage. How in the name of Brimir were they supposed to beat a group of elves?
"I can't handle all this waiting around!" Guiche suddenly shouted as he stood up. "I'm going for a walk." The two other mages watched as the boy walked off into the woods.
Kirche simply gazed into the fire as her mind began to wander back to the suit Louise was wearing. Something felt off about it, but it was the water spirit that really made her take the time to actually think about it.
"She wear's their suit."
What did that mean, was Louise wearing an elven made suit? That would certainly explain the suit's powers, but what would happen to her if the church found out.
"We can't tell anyone about the origins of Louise's suit."
Montmorency looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"
"The spirit said that Louise was wearing their suit, now if the spirit is being attacked by elves."
"She's wearing an elven suit," She said finishing her thought. "Oh founder, if the church finds out, she would most definitely be killed and her familiar would be taken away to be studied."
She nodded, "Which is why no one other than the people who heard the spirit can know about this."
She said nothing as she gazed at the fire, seemingly processing what Kirche had said. "What happens to us?"
"Huh."
"I'm saying if the church somehow finds out where Louise's suit came from they will surely start looking at her associates to see if we have been hiding information. So, I ask again, what happens to us." Montmorency had turned towards the redhead, her eyes conveying the fear she felt.
"Nothing."
"Huh?"
"We play ignorant, they have no evidence of collusion between us and Louise," Kirche explained as she gazed into the fire.
Montmorency broke the silence with a sigh. "When did it get so complicated."
"What do you mean?" Kirche asked confused.
"I mean, we came here to get a tear. Now we find out that the spirit is being tormented by elves, and that Louise has been wearing a heretical suit for the past week." Montmorency tossed her head into her open palms. "Argh, I mean what's next elves stealing entire towns?"
Silence fell over the group; both of them going back to watching the crackling fire, every now and then the redhead would toss another log into the fire.
As Kirche was set to place another log, she caught an odd noise ringing in her ear just barely audible over the fire, a sort of whistling noise as if something was flying through the air.
"Founder is that a meteor?" Montmorency asked as she pointed to the sky.
Following the girl's finger, she saw what the girl was pointing at, up in the sky was some sort of object that appeared to be a light with a red demonic fire. The object fell from the sky landing in some off seen area not that far away from them.
She looked in the direction of where the rock had landed, her face speaking volumes as to her concern. "that looked like it hit near Chanau." She looked back at the redhead who was clearly confused by the word. With a sigh, she continued. "Chanau is a tiny fishing village on my family's land, it's around where that meteor had landed."
Kirche smiled, happy to have something to alleviate this boredom. "Then, as you are the daughter of the lord of this land it should be your duty to make sure the population is alright."
The blonde only stared at her for a moment before a smile formed on her face. "You're right." The blonde stood up. "Follow me I know how to get to it from here."
Montmorency led her through the dark forest, eventually coming to a cliff that overlooked an inlet, the town she was talking about resided below them. it looked odd compared to the fishing villages in Germania. the dock was small only having half a dozen fishing boats but other than that it seemed like a normal village.
The town looked large enough to house at least a few hundred people with a large chapel situated at the center of the village, most likely dedicated to the local water spirit.
A sudden sound behind them startled the two girls, who quickly turned to see who was stalking them, only to find Guiche walking out of the woods. The boy looked shocked to have run into the two girls here but quickly recomposed himself. "I'm guessing that you two saw it?"
The two girls nodded. "We came to make sure everyone is alright."
Kirche tuned out the rest of the conversation to gaze down at the town, she didn't know what it was but she began to have doubts, as if something down there was waiting for them, perhaps this was due feeling watched when they had first arrived here but she couldn't really tell, all that she knew was that the longer she gazed at the town the more unsettled she became.
"Kirche!" A voice shouted at her breaking her from her musings. Turning towards the source of the voice she found Guiche and Montmorency walking down a path off the cliff face. Quickly the redhead caught up with the group before they continued on towards the town.
xXXXx
Several minutes later the trio found themselves entering the town, the group found themselves in a stunned silence as they examined the town. It was like a war zone, the main street was covered in broken glass, holes littered the sides of the buildings AND the smell of blood filled the air.
As the trio entered the town a familiar feeling returned to them, that of being watched, the group looked around attempting to locate it, but they were only able to find more signs of battle.
It soon became even more apparent that something horrible had happened here as the group began finding blood stains both on the road and on the houses but as they continued into the town, something occurred to the redhead, there were no bodies.
"Hello, is anyone out there? You can come out I'm a M-" the blonde attempted to yell out, only for her mouth to be swiftly clamped down by the redhead.
The blonde struggled in her grip "We don't know if whatever did this is still here." Kirche explained as she glanced around attempting to find whatever was watching them. "We should leave and get some help." The redhead whispered in an unnaturally serious voice.
The blonde attempted to speak through the tanned girl's hand only for it to come out as muffled gibberish. The blonde once released pulled away from the redhead before turning towards the fire mage her face spoke volumes as to how angry she was. "I'm still worried, I need to make sure that they are alright." She whispered.
She clenched her fist as she felt a wave of anger wash over her. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself "Fine but were not staying for long, a quick search and then we leave."
The blonde slowly nodded "Right." Montmorency looked around. "We should start at the inn, it's closest and I know the owner."
Montmorency walked passed the redhead towards the broken door of what she suspected to be the inn. Stepping inside, Kirche found that she couldn't see a thing in the dark, pulling out her wand she summoned a flame that illuminated the inn only to find it in utter chaos, the tables were turned over, the metallic smell of blood permeated the air. To her left was a bar that seemed in even worse condition to everything else.
The counter was broken in several places with pools of liquor covering the surface but again Kirche noticed that there were no bodies people had obviously died if the smell and the blood was anything to go by.
Across the room was the stairs that led up to the inn's various rooms, or what was left of the stairs. It looked as if something large had crashed into it, with the wood being caved in. The second floor looked about as good as the first with most of the doors being kicked in.
"Mister Francois, it's me Montmorency if you're still here you can come out." The blonde girl said in a hushed tone, just loud enough to be heard throughout the building.
Kirche simply ignored the mage as she continued to scan the environment. It didn't feel right, the feeling of being watched weighed down on her. "Founder what could have done this," Guiche asked breaking Kirche from her thoughts.
"Nothing human," Kirche stated
"What, how can you tell?" Montmorency questioned.
"No bodies, if this was a bandit attack they wouldn't have taken the bodies if it was mercenaries they wouldn't have trashed the town if it was an invasion they would have simply torched the town," Kirche explained to the two blondes.
Seemingly accepting her answer, the two went back to coming through the remains of the building. She noticed something off in the corner of her vision, turning towards it caused a chill run up her spine, gazing through the window was eight dots of red. Upon being seen it simply ran off, leaving the fire mage staring wide eye at the darkness.
"Kirche are you ok?" A voice called out from behind her.
Kirche continued to gaze at the darkness for several moments before finally breaking out of her trance. "Something is watching us." The redhead stated as she turned towards the group.
Guiche looked at the redhead confused "What do you me-" but he was cut off as the faint whistle filled the inn.
"We have to move," She told the group before running into the back room of the inn quickly snuffing out her flame. The group followed suit quickly entering the back of the inn. Once inside Kirche closed the door only leaving a small gap for them to look out of.
Several moments after entering the room a loud crash came from behind them. gazing through the small gap in the doorway She stared wide-eyed at the damage. The roof was now caved in, moonlight now illuminating the room. In the middle of the room was a crater that contained a single large metal pod of sorts, if Kirche had to guess it was about nine feet tall and at least four feet in diameter.
Simply gazing at the pod caused Kirche to feel a wave of anxiety to wash over her that wasn't helped by the fact that the pod had begun to glow an unnatural red colour. "Kirche what is that thing?" Montmorency asked the fire mage.
Before she could answer the pod began to hiss as steam poured out of the pod. In a single moment, the pod exploded causing smoke to fill the room. Through the smoke, she could see those same red eyes.
The creature let out a metallic cry that rang in her ears as she continued to stare at the smoke covered monster in front of her.
her eye's widened as the smoke finally cleared, in the moonlight stood an eight-foot-tall metallic monster, no monster was too light-hearted for this, this thing was a demon she was sure of it, the orange glow that surrounded that orange body in the center of the armour, those tentacles coming out of the creatures back that seemed to move in an oddly disturbing fashion that screamed demon from this world could be this horrifying.
The creature seemed to let out even more metallic gurgles as it looked around, no doubt looking for them. Kirche felt sweat begin to form as she glanced to its arms, a giant odd gun rested on its arms. She began to feel her legs tremble, she was petrified with fear. It soon walked off into the darkness of the town.
Eventually, she had enough control to glance back at the other two people with her who were similarly petrified with fear. "Monmon we need to get out of he-" before she could finish that sentence, the sound of something landing on the roof above them cut her off. Kirche had no doubt that it was another one of these demons.
After several moments of waiting the demon seemed to run off. Turning back to the scared girl she continued. "We have to get out of here." The blonde slowly nodded.
"The back exit is over here." The water mage raised her shaking arm point to another room.
Readying her wand she approached entered the room, it seemed to be mostly for storage with food and various drinks being stored here. Ignoring that she went straight for the door attempting to open it.
The door was suddenly kicked open throwing her to the ground. She quickly looked up at her attacker finding that it was one of the demons, only slightly different, this one was more hunched over in a predatory stance, instead of a gun it carried blades in each of its hands.
Kirche gazed up at the demon petrified with fear once more, as it seemed to growl at her in that same horrific metallic tone.
Finally remembering the wand in her hand, she took aim at the demon quickly reciting a dot fireball spell. The demon pounced on the women, it's arm cocked back with the blades ready to pierce her heart. The fireball left the wand, impacting the demon in the chest. It seemed to have no effect as the demon continued its attack.
Kirche felt time slow down as her mind slowly began to accept its demise, this was it, this was how she was going to die, not of old age, or fighting off some bandits, but to a demon in a town far away from home. Closing her eyes, awaited the void to greet her. But death never came. Opening her eyes, she found the blade right up against her face.
"Kirche move please." Guiche gritted out. Looking back at her attacker, Kirche now noticed all the bronze golems holding the beast back by its arms and chest. Quickly she crawled away from the demon until her back hit the wall a few feet away. Aiming her wand, she uttered another incantation, a torrent of fire burst from it engulfing both golems and the demon.
The demon began to spasm as it let out a sickening cry of pain. The back of the beast seemed to bubble before exploding. The now unoccupied suit of armour fell to the ground in a heap of metal. She kept her wand pointed at the armour as her arm shook with fear.
Slowly she regained her composure, rising to her feet. "W-w-we need to move, they know we're here." Guiche had made his way to the demon's corpse, slowly examining the metal it used. He seemed entranced by it as if it was the most spectacular thing out there. "Guiche?"
Kirche glanced down finding him seemingly shaking with fear as he attempted to pull a piece of metal off the corpse. He seemed to realize that someone was attempting to talk to him as he glanced up to look at the redhead. "S-s-sorry, it's just this metal. I-I-I-it shrugged off a fireball like it was nothing. I-I-I want to see if I can get a bit of metal to study." He stuttered as he pulled what seemed to be a shoulder plate from the body. Standing up he pointed towards the door with his rose shaped wand. "My golems can cause a distraction while we run."
It seemed like a good plan, but what if it just attracts more of them. "Monmon do you know any way to leave this town discreetly." the redhead asked the water mage, who simply stared at the corpse with utter horror on her face.
She slowly nodded. "Yes, when we founded this town we built a sewer system, but it was poorly designed causing it to back up constantly. We sealed it up, but on main street by the chapel there is a grate that we can use it to escape."
The redhead nodded before turning back to the earth mage. "Guiche, send your golems out the back door while we sneak out the front." The blonde nodded, quickly calling for more golems to raise from the ground.
Moving back to the door, she opened it slightly allowing her to see into the front of the inn. The demon was no longer there. Letting out a sigh of relief, she opened the door quickly making her way to the front gazing out the broken window at the town. It was empty, completely empty not a single soul in sight. Kirche began to feel the nervousness begin to overtake her once more. Where were they?
"We could always attempt to leave town the same way we entered it," Guiche whispered.
As she was about to comment on the earth mage's plan when a gasp came from the water mage, turning her head towards Montmorency she simply found her pointing, following her finger she found it led towards the town gate.
It was a demon like the one they just fought, the beast was dragging along an old man in a blue tunic by his head, streams of red rand down the tunic most likely from the wounds that he sustained. The creature continued to walk, ignoring everything in its path. The group watched in baited breath as it turned into where the chapel resided.
A loud bang could be heard from behind the group. Turning the group found nothing but a few moments later a metallic growl could be heard coming out of the back of the inn. "Guiche distraction now," Kirche stated. With a nod, he uttered a quick incantation causing the squad of golems to rush to the back of the inn their swords and spears at the ready. "Building across the street now!"
She hopped through the window followed by the two blondes. The trio quickly raced across the street as fast as possible. Quickly entering their new shelter, the redhead shut the door behind them before quickly moving into a back room.
She gazed around the room, it appeared to be some old blacksmithing shop as weapons, horseshoes and fishing hooks were stocked on the shelves that seemed to surround the room. The only light in the room was the moonlight that seemed to flutter in from the single window in the room. In the centre of the room was a workbench with a small hatchet stabbed into it. The bottom of which seemed to have a faint red glow that tugged at her.
Walking over it she grabbed the handle and immediately recognized the feeling. The hatchet had a flame core, used to enhance a fire mages power but what was it doing here? With a single movement, she yanked the hatchet from its hold, slowly examining the blade. Extending her arm, she aimed the hatchet, after a single word a small flame was ignited at the end of the hatchet.
Kirche was pulled from her thoughts when she heard a gasp from behind her. Turning she found Montmorency collapsed at the door with Guiche looking over her. "It was a trap." The water mage said in a barely audible
"What was that Monmon?" Guiche asked obviously concerned for the girl
The girl looked up, tears could be seen running down the girl's face. "This was a trap, and we walked into it."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"That man they were dragging off was the local water priest, and although he didn't look it he was an excellent fighter and had defended this village multiple times from bandits and the like. He most likely saw the beasts first and tried to run off or fight either way they killed him!"
"Wh-what are you getting at Monmon," Guiche asked in a lower tone.
The girl glared at the earth mage, her eyes full of fear of what was to come. "I'm saying that they let us into the town, were alive because they let us and we're going to die when they want us. They are toying with us!" The blonde shouted causing the other two to tense to tense up. The girl looked as if she was about to continue when he covered her mouth with his hand silencing her.
The group waited in silence for any evidence that they were discovered, the only sound to be heard was the muffled cries of the water mage.
A second passed, nothing
Two seconds passed nothing
Three seconds passed nothing
Four seconds passed, a subtle hum could be heard coming from the front of the store, sort of like a wind mage charging up a lightning spell. "Down!" The redhead shouted before jumping to the ground.
The earth mage saw this and jumped to the floor dragging the water mage with him. A single moment later the room exploded as a loud buzzing seemed to drown out the world.
She could feel the room begin to heat up as shattered wood pelted the redhead on the ground. A feminine scream could faintly be heard over the sound of combat.
As the onslaught continued the smell of smoke filled the redhead's nose, glancing to the side she found a fire had started in the back of the room. Knowing that she had to act fast, the fire mage slowly crawled to the now broken door, upon reaching the door, it blasted forward landing on top of the fire mage, ignoring the pain from the door she used it as cover to find her attackers.
Standing in front of the store was two demons with their guns raised, shooting out bullets at an incredible speed that glowed blue in the dark night.
Her mind worked on a plan as the flame behind her continued to get bigger. Her mind finally coming up with something caused Kirche to crawl back to the earth mage. "Guiche I need two golems, they are two demons in front of us if you send two on either side of the building and attack the demon we can probably kill them, then we make a break for the sewer!" The girl shouted over the loud buzzing sound.
The boy slowly nodded as sweat seemed to cover his face. Kirche turned her newly found hatchet to the window before sending a fireball right through it. Guiche seeing this, sent two rose petals out of the newly created hole, several moments later two new bronze Valkyries formed outside the window.
She once again crawled to the door as the noise stopped. One of the demons began to approach the group most likely to finish the job. She could feel her heart begin to beat faster and faster as the monster slowly approached her.
But before it could reach her, more buzzing rang out through the building before the sound of a pained metallic cry took its place. Looking passed the demon Kirche found the other demon with a bronze sword in its back.
Turning to aid its ally left the demon open to attack, Kirche seizing this opportunity promptly stood up and yelled out an incantation.
A huge torrent of flame emerged from the hatchet as it completely encasing the monster. It soon fell limp to the ground as the orange mass in the centre of the armour bubbled and exploded throwing flames around the room.
"We have to move now!" She shouted at the group. Quickly she rushed forward to the now broken window of the shop in order to gauge what the group needed to fight through.
"Leave me." The voice of a disheartened Montmorency said. Turning she saw the blonde gazing at her feet as she sat in that burning room.
"Montmorency this is no time for jokes we need to get out of here." The earth mage told the girl in an attempt to get her to move.
"Don't you get it!" The water mage snapped. "Were dead, we're done, out there is a bunch of demons that were able to sneak up on the water spirit, the same water spirit that could kill us with but a thought!" She bellowed with rage. "Do you think Louise, Tabitha or Professor Colbert are coming back?"
Kirche could feel herself clenching the hatchet harder. Walking over to the water mage, she grabbed her by the shirt, yanking her to her feet. Cocking her arm back, the redhead gave the girl a swift punch, before uttering yet another incantation which knocked the girl out. Keeping hold of the girl, She threw her over her shoulders. Turning back to the boy, Kirche could see the utter terror in his eyes. "Guiche we're going to run for it."
"Wh-wh-what!" The boy screamed at her.
"We're out of options, more demons are heading this way."
"Then what are we supposed to do, they are faster than us!?"
"I thought about it. We build a wall for cover as we run to the sewer. Not a good plan but the only one we got."
The boy stayed silent for a time seemingly weighing his options. "Fine, let's go."
Kirche now carrying the sleeping water mage, led Guiche to the front of the store. As Kirche looked out at the town she felt confused. She couldn't find a single demon anywhere, no red eyes, no silhouettes nothing. "Let's move." The duo left the blacksmithing shop slowly inching their way closer and closer to the chapel just a few buildings over.
But as she approached the chapel she began to feel the tension in the air. Just where were they, no matter where she looked she couldn't find a single demon. It was like the two they just fought were simply probing their defences seeing what they were capable of.
sweat began to slowly make its way down the side of her face, as she continued to move forward, her eyes scanning the environment for anything resembling an attack. The air around the fire mage seemed to grow heavy as she continued forward. The silence around her was deafening the only sound was the clacking of her boots on the stone road. Not a single other sounds could be heard.
The continued on eventually reaching the chapel. The grate could be seen in the front of the chapel, turning back to the earth mage, Kirche gave him a small nod, the boy pulled out his rose and uttered a small incantation.
Two walls formed in front of the group leading to the sewer's entrance. Quickly the two mages rushed forward not wanting to waste this small bit of respite that they somehow acquired.
As the group ran, a new sound could be heard. It was an extremely loud thumping as if a giant earth golem was walking towards them. Picking up the pace the group eventually made it to the grate, quickly aiming her hatchet, she cast a fireball which blew the ageing metal inwards.
The earth mage quickly entered climbing down the ladder into the darkness a splash of water confirmed the earth mages newfound safety. The thumping seemed to be getting even closer now, hearing this Kirche quickly brought the girl down from her shoulders before using levitate to lower her into the dark sewer.
"I got her, now get in here Kirche!" Guiche called out from the darkness.
But as she was about to enter the sewer, the wall to her left suddenly exploded, turning the girls vision dark as she was thrown into the air. she felt like she had flown for hours before finally landing with a resounding thud. Her ears rang as she tried continued to gaze into the void before her
"Kirche!" A voice said breaking through the ringing of her ears. Forcing open her eyes she caught sight of the two moons as they hung overhead, illuminating the ghost town she was in, looking around she found herself surrounded by the demons.
Suddenly grunting, She acknowledged the pain coming from all over her body, glancing down she found a large rock crushing her right leg. Using both her hands she had attempted to push the rubble off, her muscles screamed at her to stop, as she attempted to muster all of her strength.
The redhead reached up to her chest where she usually kept her wand, only to realized that she had forgotten it at the blacksmith. Glancing back over at her hatchet, Kirche Pushed through the pain as she reached out towards her hatchet, groaning as she tried to traverse the insurmountable distance between her hand and the hatchet.
A wave of relief filled her as she wrapped her fingers around the hatchet. Suddenly, a metal leg clamped down on her arm. She let out a cry of pain as it's metallic claws dug into her skin, causing her to clench onto the hatchet harder. Turning her head, she saw a demon towering over her, its head tilted slightly to the side as if seeing her on the ground before it was amusing.
The demon raised its arm as it opened its three-finger hand. The beast reached down, the girl felt the metal fingers wrap around her neck slowly raising her from the ground until she was above the demon's head.
She attempted to fight, grasping at the metal that was suffocating her, but it was ultimately fruitless.
All she could do is simply gaze into the demons red unblinking eyes in unwanted acceptance that this was where she was going to die, but at least she had saved the other two, they would amass the army needed to stop whatever these beasts were doing.
But out of the corner of her eye, she caught something that even now in her defeated stated caused her blood to run cold. It was another demon only it was huge, standing at least thirteen feet tall, in its left arm was a cannon while its right arm seemed to consist of three long pieces of blue metal that spun at a low speed.
The beast walked over to the sewer before aiming its cannon. A low hum rang in her ears as the cannon on its arm began to glow a bright blue. It fired with an echoing thud, the street not built for the punishment, caving under the attack.
Even while being choked by a demon she was able to comprehend what had happened, it was another trap. A moment later a demon hopped up from the sewer dragging both Guiche and Montmorency by their heads, the mages hung limply in its grip.
She felt the metal fingers around her neck grow tighter restricting her airflow completely. Her vision soon began to fade as she let her tears begin to flow, it had been useless Montmorency was right, these demons, they were too powerful, these were the ones who outsmarted a water spirit how were they supposed to escape from this?
As her vision turned black, she could feel the hatchet slip from her grip. A distant explosion, much like that of the pod with the musket-wielding demon, was faintly heard as her world became more and more distant.
Her world suddenly crashed back to her as she felt her body fall to the ground, her breathing was ragged as she laid on the ground attempting to catch her breath, slowly the girl raised to a kneeling state before bringing a hand to her throat finding that it hurt when she touched it.
Eventually, she began to look around, hoping to figure out why the demon had released her, the answer soon came as when she gazed up, she found the demon with its gun raised pointing at a pod that seemed to have just landed.
Still reeling from being nearly choked to death, her mind was suddenly flooded with images of her limp friends, glancing over to where she had last seen the demon carrying her friends, only to find the demon running off into the church with their bodies.
As she attempted to stand to run after them the pod exploded blanketing the street in smoke, nearly instantly the smoke was filled with blue light and the sound of extremely loud buzzing as a firefight broke out in the street. Kirche began to crawl around aimlessly in order to find her hatchet.
The smoke soon dissipated allowing Kirche to finally spot her hatchet. The girl quickly crawled over to it picking it up before turning back to the battle finding herself in complete shock. In front of her were four dead demons, their suits of armour completely void of their orange bodies. As she looked up, Kirche felt the world slow down as she realized who had been her saviour, Louise.
The small girl was running atop a building on the other side of the street towards the chapel in her now golden suit of armour, in her arms was a gun that the demons had been using. The girl fired the gun with unnatural accuracy taking down any demon she looked at.
They wouldn't be detruded so easily with the large demon firing that spinning cannon, its blue bullets illuminating the night, she could only gape when she saw that the bullets that had torn the shop they were in to pieces hardly affect Louise, with the biggest indication of damage being a small ripple in her golden aura and a loud thuk sound that rang in the redhead's ears.
The suited mage simply ignored the brute more interested in the three other demons guarding the church, but instead of simply shooting the demon's the girl just ran across the rooftop towards the at incredibly high speed.
As she neared the end of the roof she placed the gun on her back, the three demons' seeing her assault took a defensive position, using various parts of the church as cover, reaching the edge of the roof Louise gracefully leapt off while cocking her arm back landing several seconds later with a loud bang, the demon's that surrounded her had exploded leaving only a single demon hiding behind the door to the church. The girl reacted quickly pulling out her blade before stabbing it into the door impaling the demon on the other side.
Kirche sat back in awe at the battle it was as if she was viewing those stories of heroes taking on armies by themselves, except this was real and not some play put on by parents in order to entertain their child.
Kirche Slowly stood on her unstable legs, feeling the familiar feeling of blood running down the outside of leg Glancing down she found that her skirt had a massive cut in it with the fabric around it being damp with a liquid.
Bringing her hatchet up to her shoulder she made a quick cut at her shirts arm quickly tearing it off before wrapping it around the cut on her leg as a makeshift bandage. The redhead began to limp forward ignoring her muscles pleas for rest as the battle raged on.
With no other small demons to deal with she saw Louise turn her attention towards the large demon, beginning to sprint at it while pulling out the demon gun firing multiple shots at the demon who simply shrugged off the attack, simply returning his own volley of fire. Kirche didn't know if it was simply her eye's playing tricks on her, but she swore she saw Louise give her a slight nod. The girl rushed to the other side of the monster giving Kirche a perfect opening to get to the chapel.
Using her hatchet, she levitated herself over to the chapel's large doors before setting herself down wanting to conserve as much willpower as possible for the upcoming fight with the demon. Nearing the church, the redhead suddenly found herself doubling over in disgust nearly vomiting from the smell coming from the open doors of the chapel. It was truly a horrifying smell as if someone had mixed blood and decaying meat with rotten eggs. Covering her nose she continued forward into the chapel.
The chapel was blanketed in darkness making it hard for her to see, she was, however, able to make out the rows of seats that were on either side of the main aisle. As she moved forward she began to hear faint muttering, as she got closer to the seats she began to realize something, the chapel was full of people. Walking forward she continued to look around making sure that the demon wasn't going to sneak up on them, but as she began to walk into the aisle she could finally see the people around her.
"Please oh, mother ocean guide my child to the void." A woman who held a glob of goo in her hands wrapped up in a blanket like a baby.
"Fucking Germania, this is their fault probably working with these demons or something the heretics," A hardened man said as he attempted to hold his lower torso which appeared to be turning into a liquid.
"Where where's my hatchet, I can save us if I have my hatchet." A man said as he stumbled around his eyes swollen to the point where he couldn't see
As she gazed around she found something so horrific, so disgusting that the mere sight of it was enough to cause her to double over, at the end of the aisle was a huge pile of humans, all of them were melted together forming a large glop of pink matter. She wouldn't have been able to tell that it was human in origin if not for the occasional arm and leg sticking out of the pile. This was too much for the girl who had doubled over, clamping a hand onto her mouth as she felt bile run up into her mouth.
As the redhead continued to try and get her stomach under control, she could hear a metal scrapping from above her. She felt her blood run cold as the scraping became louder as if it was right on top of her, she could feel her breathing become shallow as her body began to quake with fear.
Slowly she turned her head upwards towards the dark roof of the chapel. Above her sat the demon hanging from the roof. The demon reacted to being spotted quickly lunging at the girl with its claws at the ready.
Her legs screamed at her as she dove forward, Kirche just barely dodged the demons attack. Kirche groaned as she hit the ground, quickly the redhead spun around raising her axe to unleash a torrent of fire. The demon reacted by jumping onto a pillar to his left, before once again lunging at the women. Turning the axe around Kirche muttered an incantation to a simple wind spell blowing her down the aisle and away from the demon.
As she laid on the ground, the demon turned towards her once more, she had an idea but wasn't so keen to put it into action. The demon lunged once more, ready to impale her, Kirche quickly reacted by pointing her axe at the beast.
Another torrent of fire spewed once more from the axe, engulfing the demon as it soared through the air. The demon seemed to shrug the attack off continuing to have its arm cocked back. Kirche slammed her eyes shut as she waited to be impaled by the monster.
But the pain never came, the only sound she could hear was the sizzle of the burning flesh. Slowly she opened her eyes, to her left was the beasts arm its blades stuck in the ground. Resting over her was the demon, who seemed to shudder in pain as his flesh continued to cook. Quickly she crawled out from under the beast, who soon collapsed under its own weight.
Kirche simply gazed at the burning body as it continued to sizzle due to the flames, she could feel the speed at which her heart was beating, slowing her already rapid breathing she could feel her body begin to relax, slowly the girl rose from her position, readying her axe for any other demons that laid in wait for her.
Walking forward she found herself face to face with the large pile of pink matter, she felt herself become more and more sick with each passing second of her staring at the pink matter, a small metal scraping sound caught her attention, causing her to quickly take a combat stance as she prepared for another attack that could come her way. The sound continued but nothing in her vision could be the source of it until she looked down.
At the base of the giant pink matter, it looked to be a giant metal beetle with a long mosquito like nose and tail, the creature was sticking its long needle-like nose into the matter, sucking it up before running off up a set of stairs that Kirche hadn't noticed was there.
Slowly she followed the beetle ascended the stairs, ready and waiting for anything. As she reached the top of the stairs she came to a cross-section, to her right was a doorway to some room but to her left was a dark pathway that overlooked the entire chapel.
As she was about to check out the room she heard faint sobbing. Turning around she began to rush down the pathway as fast as her damaged legs would carry her.
Kirche suddenly stopped as she finally made it to the source of sobbing, at her feet was a dead demon, a single clean slice along its still body, but in front of her, was a simple dark corner pulling out her axe Kirche ignited a flame allowing her to witness the scene before her.
In front of her was Guiche's body, two clearly defined holes in his chest surrounded by blood-soaked fabric. Above him was a broken Montmorency whose tears had carved a river down her face, the limp hand of guiche rested in her left hand while her other hand held her wand. Kirche watched as the girl muttered the same incantation over and over again through her sobbing, causing water to flow out of the wand and into his wounds, but no matter how many times she did it nothing happened, the wound didn't close up and the boy didn't move.
Kirche slowly approached the girl in order to consul her when a torrent of water blasted her away, the redhead landed moments later sliding to a complete stop. "Go away!" The faulty voice of Montmorency shouted at her.
Slowly the redhead stood once more. "Monmon pleas-"
Another torrent of water flew at the fire mage only for Kirche to just barely dodge it. "Don't call me that!" The girl shouted once more between her sobs. "Just leave us alone." She said in a softer tone.
Kirche felt a tear leave her eye as she tightened her grip on her axe. "Montmorency this church isn't safe we still don't know if we've dealt with all the demons,"
Montmorency seemed to tighten her grip on the earth mages hand. "I'll defend him, like he had done for me and then when my water magic heals him and he wakes up, we'll leave and drop out of school and get married, like what was arra-" The girl broke down into sobs once more, unable to fully handle the situation presented to her.
Kirche couldn't help but sympathize with the girl, she had never been in a life or death situation before and for her first fight to end in such tragedy. Kirche glanced back at the body finding herself coming to tears once more, he didn't deserve this. The clanking of armour could be heard from behind the fire mage, quickly she turned around raising her axe for any possible threat, only to find a pair of Guiche's Valkyries walking towards them.
"Montmorency, I'll leave you with him, but please, when the golems run out of willpower. Please leave." Kirche told the water mage, her voice nearly breaking several times. With that Kirche walked passed the two Valkyries eventually leaving the chapel.
She quickly found Louise hanging off her sword that was implanted in the large demon's back, her gun could be seen some distance away broke in two. it attempted to shake her off but to no effect. She watched as Louise climbed the back until she rested on the monsters shoulder.
She grabbed hold of its helmet as her golden aura turned slightly red. The beast let out a fearful shriek as it fought harder to get her off. but it was no use as she ripped its helmet off revealing the deep red face of the demon. She quickly grabbed hold of its head with both hands and quickly crushed it.
The large suit of armour stumbled forward, before collapsing.
Louise stepped off of the beast, before turning and looking at her. She couldn't help but notice the goo that covered her golden suit. Louise began to walk forward passed the fallen armour of demons.
"Kirche what happened. I saw that demon dragging both Montmorency and Guiche into the chapel." The suited mage asked her as soon as she got close enough to hold a conversation. When Kirche refused to answer Louise simply narrowed her eyes. "Kirche tell me, what happened."
She opened her mouth to speak, but felt the words refusing to leave her mouth, she honestly couldn't put it into words. She cursed herself, she knew death but she couldn't even say that their friend had been killed. Louise glared at the redhead" Fine I'll just go find out myself."
but as Louise walked passed her, she extended an arm placing a hand on the girl's chest stopping her.
"Don't. Montmorency is grieving right now." She could feel a weight on her chest.
Louise could only stare wide-eyed at the girl. "Y-y-you don't mean." Upon seeing the solemn on her face Louise caught the hint.
"Louise, the water spirit wishes to see you."
The pair turned towards the new voice, finding a soaked Colbert carrying Tabitha. looking at the shameful expression on his face it was clear that he had heard their conversation.
With nothing left to say, Louise walked off to the dock.
Kirche turned back to the professor. "We need to burn down the town the things that happened here, shouldn't be seen by anyone.
xXXXx
High above the town on a cliffside road, King Joseph sat atop his carriage beaming with excitement as he watched the town with his spyglass. He had finally confirmed it, Louise de la Valliere was capable of using their weapons against them, something that was completely unheard of until now.
This was a turning point, for the past several years he had been preparing for the next ceph incursion, but deep down he knew that it wouldn't be enough. There was no way for Halk to survive it, all of his preparation was pointless. But this, this was something else, a turning point, a future for all of humanity.
Gripping a goo soaked blade he Hopped off the carriage he landed by several Ceph corpses. Turning he opened the door to his carriage revealing a terrified maid. "Let us head back to the castle Chausson, my business here is done."
xXXXx
A/N
Not much different again, just some editing as well as an extra small fight after Kirche leaves the church. Although I have to wonder if I was half asleep when writing this originally due to the fact that there were so many simple mistakes.
Hope you enjoyed it and have a great day.
