Chapter 14

The Beast to Come

How could this be happening to them again? All they had wanted to do was come down and enjoy a nice relaxing vacation before the semester started over again, but no. It was Kaya all over again, but this time the stakes were higher. They only hoped that the king's guards could catch them before they put their real plan into effect. As it stood Tali and the others were not allowed to go to the festival until the two criminals were caught, it sucked but what could they do? The day seemed to go by must faster than the previous days, although that might have been because Oshira and the others were busy beating each other up virtual style through a fighting game they had found. The palace was quiet that night as Akio gathered his wife and all ten of his squad captains in the briefing hall to work out a plan to flush out the two wanted criminals.

"Alright, is everyone present?" he asked as they all stood around the circular table.

"Yes sir, everyone is present and accounted for." Issac said as he closed the door.

"Right, let's get down to business." He said as he motioned the Meloni the witch nurse over to the table.

She knew what she had to do, while they didn't have a physical map of the city they had the next best thing. Once she approached the table she placed her hands on the underside as she channeled her power of light into it. It more often than not put a strain on her body since her light magic required physical energy to be used. She was strong however as the light began to sink into the wood where then the map outlined on the table began to light up. While the table did have a map it was only a top down view, but with their fellow witches magic they could bring it into 3D. Once every line had been traced with the light it began to rise as a orb floated upward and outward.

"Rather impressive, when did you learn that?" Isaac asked.

"You know, I like to mess with different spells." She said as she relaxed in a chair.

Once the map had surrounded them all it turned and flipped into a 3D perspective, every little detail of the city from the underground tunnels to the smallest cracks in the sidewalks were there.

"Right, enough chit chat, let's get to it. So as we all should be aware by now our two culprits are located somewhere in the city, the only problem is finding out where they are. We sent multiple of our troops into the underground passageways and inside the ruins of the forgotten fortress, but there seemed to be no sign of life in either. Both were completely empty." Akio said as he pointed to both the underground passages and the ruins located behind the palace.

"It's apparent they are watching us no less, but the question is why haven't they struck again? They could have at any moment but instead they merely sent out their cohorts to do their dirty work." Said Kiyomi.

"Right, we need to find some way to flush them out, then we can take care of them." Isaac said as he moved to the table.

"Perhaps their using some kind of cloaking spell, you know to blend in with the surroundings. If that's the case they could still be in the tunnels or ruins and just didn't want their presence to be known, if you want I could easily flush them out with some nice refreshing ice." Ramina said.

"I don't think that will be necessary, perhaps if we were to capture one of their cohorts we could force them out of hiding." Akio suggested.

"I don't know, that might not work. Perhaps we should use something they want, perhaps Tali." One of the captains suggested before the collar of his armor was grabbed by his king and crumpled.

"We will not use my daughter as bait!" he exclaimed as the fire around his hands began to eat away at the guard's armor.

"R-Right sir, it won't happen again."

If there was one thing Akio hated more it was when someone suggests to put his own flesh and blood in danger.

"Perhaps we could, set some traps? Meloni, you know how to set up traps don't you?" Isaac asked.

"Yes, but it would take some time. The tunnels stretch for more than two miles so it would probably take around two days to set them up."

"It could work, but shouldn't we just go in gun blazing?" Ramina asked.

"Are you crazy? If we did that then we would be putting the citizens in danger. A fight would erupt and god only knows what would happen." Isaac responded.

"Well I don't see you coming up with any big idea. Traps, please that preschool stuff. If we encounter them we will just have to fight until they fall."

At this point Akio didn't know what to do, the traps sounded like the better option, but what if they didn't work? With the youngest having the black blood it would be more than likely that she would sense the traps before they hit one. He didn't know what to do and it didn't help that Isaac and his partner was arguing right in his ear.

"Enough! Both of you, silence! Can we please get back to the situation at hand without fighting like children?!"

It was no wonder he was the king, his voice had a deep authoritarian tone to it, one that shook the entire palace. Meanwhile upstairs everyone was fast asleep as Akio and the others proceeded to figure out a good plan to flush out their foes.

It was to no surprise that that night Ryo had started dreaming about the ghoul all over again. Once he opened his eyes he found himself back in the blinding white room with the ghoul waiting for him as he sat in the center of the floor.

"Hah, so you returned. Tell me, have you made your choice yet?" he asked as he drew small figures along the floor.

"No, I'm not sure if I'm ready for this, I mean this is huge."

"Well you better hurry up, time is running out for you, tick tock tick tock."

Something wasn't right, what was he talking about? He didn't mention that there was a time limit.

"Ok wait, you didn't say anything about time last time. What are you talking about?" he asked as he approached himself.

"Oh why, why indeed." The ghoul said as he raised his head with a creepy grin on his face.

To his shock Ryo almost stumbled backwards but managed to keep his balance. What had happened? Along his face, neck, and half of his right arm were dark marks. It looked a bit like spider web, but it seemed to be cemented in his flesh.

"See, it's already starting." He said in a slightly happier tone.

"What's started?"

But when he got no answer he lifted the creature off the ground and pulled him to his feet.

"What's started?!"

"The blood, it will consume you if you don't make the choice."

"Consume me, how, how will it consume me?" he asked as he took deep breathes to calm down.

"Your life, your memories, your friends, they will all disappear. Your mind will change into that of a beast. You will forever walk both monster and human world in search of flesh to satisfy your never-ending appetite, one that you can't control."

What he had just heard made his stomach churn a bit, but he managed to keep his cool.

"Please, you have to tell me. Is there a way to stop it from taking over?" he asked as he shook his shoulders.

"Indeed my friend, there is a way. The process of becoming a ghoul is fairly slow and take a pretty good amount of time to take over the hosts body, but when you get angry it fuels the blood and thus the ghoulification increases in speed. However, if you were to get angry, but instead of vengeance you wanted to say protect that girlfriend of yours then the process at which the blood takes over will slow down significantly."

"So you're saying if I fight for others instead of myself and if my anger is used to protect Minami and the others then the blood won't take over as fast."

"Correct, but that still won't stop it from taking over. You will need to make that choice or else you will become a beast."

Suddenly they both heard a loud explosion, it sounded very close.

"Quick, you must return." The ghoul pushed him off the side of the platform.

When it opened his eyes he had arrived back in his room with Minami missing from the picture. Then suddenly he heard another explosion, this time it came from the festival grounds just outside his window.

"What in the living hell?"

When he looked through the window he saw a horrific sight, the festival grounds were burning with black fire as two giant spider like creatures walked over the crumbling stands, but it was who was on top of one of the spiders that interested him. Destra was the one lighting all the stands on fire, she was the one who was causing all the chaos and out front Minami and the others, including the king, queen, and Tali were all out trying to stop the creatures.

"Keno, come on you! I know you're here!" she yelled.

He didn't know what to do, while he wanted to fight he didn't want the blood to take over again. He only watched for a few second as Tsukune attempted to slice off the spiders legs with his gauntlets, but instead of staying gone they just grew back and even when Moka and Minami attempted to pound it into the ground it just rose back to its legs like it hadn't even been injured.

"Damn it, what do I do?!" he thought to himself.

If he went out there was a possibility that the blood could take over him again, but if he didn't his friends might be in some serious trouble.

"Screw it!" he yelled as he grabbed the sword hilt from his bedside.

As soon as he opened the window he jumped out and landed safely in the water. Without any time to waste he jumped out and began running down the pathway that lead him straight to his enemy. As the dust flew up from his running his sword began to charge as Destra came within viewing distance.

"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else again!" he yelled inside his mind as he vanished.

He sipped between poles and low overhangs until he came upon his opponent and with one swing of his blade their fight was underway.

"There you are Keno, let's rock this party shall we?" she asked as their blades clashed.