Chapter 10: You're Back
The village was burning, and people were screaming as they were slain by me, and a band of mercenaries led by a woman named Raven. I walked towards the center of the village dragging the old man I met a long time back. The man who along with the village I saved several times. When I made it to the center I held him up for the surviving members of the village to see. As I executed him.
"Good job. It appears I was wrong, the puppy does have a bite." Raven said as she walked towards me. I was furious at her comment. In the rage I charged pointing the rapier forwards towards the woman. She placed her hand on her blades hilt. She slowly started pulling the blade out when I felt two sets of feet on my back shoving me into the ground as I slid to a halt at her feet.
"Oh come on mutt," I heard the joking voice of the jester on my back as he, and his brother leaned over me, and looked into my eyes, "You know the rules on attacking when you aren't told."
The jester. The fool of the group he's the one who has never been loved in his life. So his semblance made a person for him to be friends with. His brother. Essentially the jester is a schizophrenic, and his semblance can bring the voice in his head to reality giving him a body. With his own specific skill sets.
The brother placed the blade of his weapon against my face dragging it gently across my cheek. "Mutt you've made a mistake," The brother said as his weapon left my cheek, "time to pay!" I knew what he was going to do, he was going to stab me with the blade he has. Good I welcome death it would be well deserved. I've been dead twice, and have been brought back both times. My life is a crime against nature.
"Brother you know we can't do that." I heard Jester say as the second pair of feet was removed from my body, and I heard the sound of blades being sheathed. After the blades were sheathed the man moved from my body, and walked up to Raven. "Did he suit your needs?"
I stood watching as Raven nodded her head, "He executed the operation excellently, people seemed to welcome him though. Why?"
The Jester chuckled, "He was once the guardian of this village," The Jester explained grabbing my chin between his index finger, and thumb, "before he was killed by his dear sister," He said smacking me hard as he said that causing blood to fill my mouth. I glared at him spitting the blood rubbing my mouth. "Now if you'll excuse us we have things to do. Come mutt."
I stood walking to my sword but something was wrong. My sword was on the ground, not in it. I looked at the sword, and saw that the blade was starting to fade, and from the looks of it has been fading for a long time. Instead of it being a seven foot blade it now looked more like four maybe five feet in length. It needed to return to the void before it was destroyed forever. I heard Jester call for me angrily, and forced to obey I grabbed the sword, and dragged it behind me as I followed him into the woods.
Jester's POV
I jumped from tree to tree watching the mutt as he trudged through the woods to our next location, a cottage previously destroyed by him. Azurus believed the tenants will have returned by now. I stopped standing on one branch looking behind us feeling uneasy as the mutt passed through a large clearing in the woods. I summoned one of my two brothers, and looked him in the eyes. "Trek back, see if we are being followed." My brother nodded, and sprinted through the trees backtracking along the route carved by the sword of the mutt. I turned to the clearing seeing that he has passed the clearing, and is continuing his march. "Good, I'll catch up with him later, I need to wait here for my brother to return with news."
Muerte's POV
Me, and Nevia had been following a trail that was basically a small ditch in the ground carved out by something. Seeing the gates to the village Shion we realized we had made a large circle slowly coming back to our house that had been destroyed by whatever made this trail. "Muerte, look." Nevia had stopped, and was pointing at the village, and I saw what she had meant. The village was in ruins, buildings were burning, and falling apart. We almost rushed in to see if there were any survivors but as we neared it we saw that there were still people inside the village, and they were fighting creatures of Grimm. Nevia, and I hid in the rough of the woods looking at the village. I grabbed Acutus which was sat in it's carrying form on my back, and pulled the small lever to pull back the firing mechanisms for the ranged mode of the weapon. I aimed down the sights pointing it straight at one of the Grimm. I was about to fire when Nevia stopped me. "It would be unwise to do that Muerte. It would alert the bandits, and the Grimm. Logically it be best if we continue down the path we are following."
"Nevia, we can't just leave, this was our home for a while. This was a village we protected, and these people destroyed it." I quietly said enraged.
"We follow the trail we find out who destroyed our home." Nevia said raising her left hand, "We stay, and fight we have the chance of getting farther behind the person who left this trail, and could possibly be killed. There are only two of us." She said raising her right hand, moving them up, and down like a scale. "Option one seems best. Now let's go."
I sighed putting Acutus back into its carry form. "Fine," I said standing following the trail.
We seemed to follow the trail for hours before eventually coming across a large field. "Okay the trail continues let's hurry, and follow it. The ground looks like it's been dug into not too long ago so we may be able to catch this guy." I said sprinting towards the other side when a funny looking man jumped out of the tree holding one sword in each hand, with another sheathed on his waist.
"Sorry ladies I'm afraid I cannot allow you to go any farther, the mutt needs to do his work, and I can't have you interfering." He said holding his swords out to the side bowing.
"Who are you?" Nevia asked her pistol aimed at him.
"My name is Viridi Garden, but everyone calls us 'Jester'" He said as he stood smiling sadistically.
"Us?" I questioned as I held my spear with the spear tip aimed at the ground pointing from my bottom right.
"Us." A second voice said as this man named Jester threw one of his swords. The sword went between us, and as we turned we saw a second man looking exactly like the first catch the sword.
I turned to Nevia, "I got the first one, you take care of this one." I turned back to Jester, and moved forwards towards him. He beckoned me to attack using his free hand, and I ran towards him. When I was around nine feet away from the man I jumped, and swung Acutus axe point towards him. He smiled as he did a mid air cartwheel moving out of the range of my attack. I landed on the ground dropping Acutus to avoid any harm as I landed. As I stood I had mere seconds to react as the man sprinted towards me swinging his sword towards my head. I quickly reached down to my thighs, and pulled out the repaired Caeli, and Naraka combining them to deflect the attack. But he just used it as momentum. He grabbed Nishoku, and spun around to kick me in the head, hard. I was knocked down my vision blurred, and I was unsteady. I tried to stand but fell to my knees, I looked over at Nevia seeing her engaged in combat, before the man grabbed my chin, and forced me to look at him.
"Nice try dollface, better luck next time," He said in a joking voice, "oh wait. There won't be a next time." He finished his sentence in a deep dark voice. As he let me go, and looked at Nevia.
I looked as well, and saw her falling to her knees with the sword of the other man stabbed through her kneecap. My instincts kicked in, and I remembered something Xavier said to me. About if I ever needed him to just yell, and he'd be there. I took it literally in my weakened state, and I yelled, "HELP!"
?'s POV
EsDeath was trudging through the woods thinking, and smiling. But the smile faded fast when he heard something loud. A cry for help, but from a voice he knew. Quickly he turned around, and looked in the direction he came from. He gripped his sword, and spoke again for the first time since being brought back from the dead, "Muerte!" As he said thi his sword lit up like a christmas tree, three large purple lines glowing down the blade, as he sprinted towards the clearing as fast as he could.
Muerte's POV
I watched as my blurred vision saw two different men raising their blade as he prepared to kill me. I closed my eyes, and pulled my head towards my shoulders. 'Please Xavier help me if you can.'
As I sat there I felt a large gust of wind hit my face, and a loud clang of metal hitting metal. "Xavier thank you." I said looking up seeing not Xavier but my brother. He stood hunched over me his giant sword diagonally across his back, and the tip pointed towards the sky fading. He looked at me but he blocked out the sun so all I saw was his silhouette.
"Mutt!" I heard Jester exclaim surprised, "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be on your way to the next victims house. Oh I get it, you want revenge! She killed you! Now you want to kill her!" I heard him sheath his sword, "Well have fun."
My brother slowly stood pulling his sword out to the side, and I feared for my life. If EsDeath was the mutt, then I have seen all of the destruction he has caused, the lives he's taken. "First off Viridi, the name is EsDeath. Call me by it. Secondly," EsDeath turned swinging his sword at Jester though he jumped out of the reach of the weapon. The face of the Jester was one of pure terror, "If you ever hurt my little sister, I will kill you. You personally know I can, and will make good on that promise."
"What? B-but how did you break Azurus' control?" He said backing away, "No one can do that." I saw his eyes shift, and noticed his brother walking towards us his sword readied.
"EsDeath. The brother." I said quickly grabbing his leg weakly. EsDeath turned his head slightly to see the brother out of the corner of his eye.
"You don't learn do you Viridi." EsDeath said jumping into the air doing a corkscrew spin throwing the sword at the brother while also grabbing Tri-Ferra. The Void stapped through the brother's stomach, and impaled him in the ground as EsDeath holding Tri-Ferra down towards the ground stabbing it into the chest of the brother. The brother twitched slightly as the aura drained from his artificial body, and slowly he pixelated, and faded away into the original Jester. EsDeath grabbed both swords, and pointed them towards Jester, "Run."
Jester ran into the tree line, and looked back at us, "This is not the last time you've heard of us, we will be back." With that he ran away.
I sighed watching him leave hearing Nevia groan. "Nevia!" I said loudly rushing over to her to check her wounds. I looked at her leg where she was stabbed, and saw that the area around it was turning into a sickly black colour. She was unconscious, and now unmoving. I turned to my brother who was passed out from exhaustion on the ground. Something had weakened him before all this happened. I pulled out my scroll, and called Xavier.
"Hey shortstack how can I help you?" Xavier said as he picked up.
'First my brother calling me little, now Xavier calling me shortstack.' I answered Xavier my voice still shaky from everything. "I need help, Nevia has been badly hurt, and I don't think I can carry her all the way back to the house. Can: you, and Sky come get us in the ship Sky bought. Bring Angel as well. I have a surprise for her." I finished sending Xavier my co-ordinates, and ending the call. I looked at my brother, and tears welled in my eyes, "Welcome back brother."