Darkest Before Dawn
Chapter 21
Tails' POV
The smell of blood and ash was the first thing that hit me once we reached the mouth of the cave. Flames layered the houses and smoke filled the once crystal clear sky. The large evergreen trees' bristles burned to ashes and I caught out of the corner of my eye that the chameleons, with large axes the size of Ero's, were chopping the trees down. One fell and landed on several spiritualists, who were fending off the sudden coming wave of shadows.
"No… this can't be happening…" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to find the Watchers standing behind us; their eyes reflected the flames as they burnt the spiritualist capital to the ground. "We can not allow Shikyo to do this."
"Then do something," Kage muttered. He picks the worst times to be sarcastic.
The Watchers disappeared.
Ero took his axe from Amy and handed her hammer which he was holding for her. "We'll be needing these."
"We're fighting these things?" She asked, fear filling her eyes.
"What are we supposed to do?" Kage asked. "Scream and run?"
"Sounds like a good idea," she answered.
The black kitsune didn't respond to her, but instead looked over to Meep. "You take the runt and bratness out to find at least one of those Watcher bastards: I'm not done with my questions. Ero and I'll find the leader of this assault."
Meep saluted and transformed into his large form with large claws. We followed him, leaving Kage and Ero behind in the flames.
Amy shrieked.
Meep and I whipped around and I drew Kage's sword, ready to kill what had come. But no chameleons were bothering us, for they were too distracted by the spiritualists they were fighting and killing. But instead I found that Amy had tripped over the head of the dog woman that led us to the Watchers beforehand. I saw he body a couple feet to our right. Must have been beheaded.
"Come on, Amy," I said, motioning her forward. I avoided eye contact with the dog lady who now laid in two parts.
I heard the voice laugh in my head. Everyone's going to die, she said smoothly, even the rabbit spiritualist and the pink hedgehog!
I ignored her even though I did let out a flinch.
We continued forward. Suddenly the cougar, which had thrown the axe at me only earlier today came in front of us, a spear through his stomach. He fell to the ground and into his own puddle of blood. The chameleons came out of the ground and piled over him, devouring his flesh and internal organs.
One of them noticed me and gave out a call much like a bird's. The others slowly looked towards us and immediately attacked.
I tried my best to slash through them with the sword I was now using for the first time, but the more I killed the more that came. Finally, after what seemed like countless hours of full-fledged conflict, the chameleons, at least around us, were gone. Black clumps lied everywhere and in front of us was half the body of the cougar – the other half, even the bones, had been devoured.
I took a step forward and my foot landed in something mushy. It was the cougar's brains. I almost threw up, but contained myself and quickly stepped back and rubbed my shoe against the ground. I heard a groan of disgust from Amy, but nothing from Meep.
We continued on, now closer to each other than ever. I could hear the chopping breath of Amy and felt the air being suppressed by Meep's large bat wings. We were too close for comfort, yet still too far away. A chill went up my spine as I heard screaming come from further in the city of Descentmet.
We found ourselves soon at the large pillar stone that stood in the middle of the city. Most of the chameleons were around here, but yet again too busy with the war-trained spiritualists. I noticed something.
A hazy black figure was writing something large on the stone in the blood of who I soon realized to be one of the Watchers. Soon the blood read: "I AM, INDEED, THE PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR SINS".
The writer turned towards us, revealing his face.
I gasped, "Shadow?"
Ero's POV
I lifted my axe above my head as I jumped into the air. I brought the blade straight into one of the many chameleons' heads and went through its black skull. I flung my axe, which still held the chameleon's head, to the side and broke through yet another one. I hit my axe on the other side and the two chameleons flew off the blade and became apart of the destruction around us.
I looked to Kage, who was finishing off his last one. He kneeled down to one of the bodies of the chameleons and took a bit of its flesh into his fingers. He sniffed it and took a lick.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him. "You don't know where that thing's been!" I walked over to him and grabbed the chuck out of his hand and threw it.
"As I thought," he said, standing up and totally ignoring my question and comment. "Seal. Shikyo's incarnating the dead…"
"Well, that's great to know," I said annoyed.
Kage was about to say something to me, but a voice came from behind us. "MR. KAGE! MR. KAGE!" We both flung around to find Molly running to us. Tears filled her eyes. When she reached us, she clung onto the black kitsune. "Mr. Kage, I'm scared!"
Usually, he would tell her to go away and leave him alone, but instead he picked her up and then from there on ignored her like he would do usually. "Shikyo's not here, but there's gotta be a damn leader somewhere," he told me, "there was a leader in Forestine and there's a leader here, got it?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I'll look for a psycho."
"They're not that hard to find…"
Tails' POV
I took a step forward, getting a closer look at the hedgehog. He looked normal, for the most part, except for the mad look swirling in his eyes. He had fallen to Shikyo.
"Welcome, Miles," he said, jumping down from his spot by the pillar. His voice was lower than normal, "I have been expecting you." He scanned around the area, as if he was looking for something. "But where is the black kitsune, I must ask."
"Somewhere," I answered dryly. No matter how much I didn't want to believe the fact that my friend had given in, I did not try to make peace. It wouldn't be possible.
Shadow bent down and picked up the Watcher's weapon, which appeared to a sickle like Kage's. "What do you say, Miles? Let's spar a round."
I readied my sword. Shadow usually wasn't that good with weapons, but I couldn't underestimate him while in Shikyo's power. I heard Amy mummer to stop and step back, but I blocked her out; Shadow would never allow me to do that.
He launched himself off the ground, sickle in hand, at me. I barely blocked his blade. I then realized he was too fast for me. He butted me in the stomach with the end of the sickle's handle and I flew back into Amy. Meep slashed him across the face.
Shadow smirked and grabbed the Chao by the throat, chocking him. "Stupid Chao, don't interfere." He threw him into a pit of the chameleons and Meep began his life struggle against the man-eating lizards.
I stood up, not bothering to help Amy. I ran towards him and slashed my sword at his neck, but he grabbed my by both of my tails and the back of my neck. He held me up close to his face. "You're going to have to do better than this… if you ever want to survive Master Shikyo…"
I noticed that his weapon was lying on the ground and I stabbed into the handle, barely scratching it. But to my relief, the sickle turned into a small green box and disappeared into the wind.
Shadow stared down at the ground. This was my chance. I closed my eyes. Sorry Shadow. I stabbed at him and felt the sword go through him. I felt, as I stabbed, my tails and my lower body dropped. I slowly opened my eyes. My sword had gone through his hand. "Nice try," he said, smirking.
I heard a battle cry from behind us and Amy took a whack at the black hedgehog, nailing him in the stomach. I was completely released from his grip and he slammed into the pillar just below his writing. He slid down it and onto the ground. I looked to Amy, who was panting and crying all at once. "Sorry, Shadow…" She muttered.
But Shadow stood up like nothing happened.
His eyes suddenly grew a bit wider and I felt something suddenly dropped into my bloody hands. Molly? She looked up at me confused, tears filling her eyes.
I then saw that Kage was in front of us, sickle tightly spellbound in his hand. "Hey there, smart-ass. Wanna go for a round?"
Shadow smirked. "Gladly." He picked up my sword, which I just now noticed I had dropped and took a slash at Kage, who dodged it.
I felt Ero pulled on my arm and he dragged us back. He tripped over something and then we were surrounded by more of Shikyo's shadow chameleons. I felt Meep suddenly on my head. I guess he survived his death trap. The lizards bared their black teeth and jumped at us. I grabbed a dead spiritualist's spear and stabbed it into one of the demons while holding the sobbing Molly in my other arm. We continued the onslaught, and that's when I comprehended that the rest of the spiritualists were dead. There might be one or two still struggling to survive, but… the capital city was gone. Descentmet could never been the same way again.
There was nothing I could do to save it. I stabbed another chameleon. We would be the only ones walking out of here alive…
I sliced through the back of the last shadow and it gave out a finally battle cry before it died. I sighed. Finally, we were done.
There was a scream that pierced through the crackling flames around us.
"Kage!" Ero cried.
Kage was huddled over in front of the chuckling Shadow in a ball, rocking back and forth. He was shaking, covered in his and others' blood.
Shadow muttered, "It wouldn't hurt too long, black kitsune…."
Kage stopped moving.
I saw that Ero stared at the black cluster in terror. He stepped back. "Not again."
I felt something grasp my leg. Meep, who was back to normal, stared at his master muttering 'meep' and the occasional 'Kage'…
Kage slowly stood up and grabbed his sickle. He turned around and faced us. The first thing I saw was the mad look in his eye.
The echo of Shikyo's snickering filled my head.
Wahoo! 21st chapter is done and who knows when the next one will be out! On the 23rd I'm off the Pennsylvania till the 27th and won't have a computer. I have an 8 hour drive there and back so I'll probably will get a chapter or two done, but won't be able to put them up for a bit longer.
The quote "I am, indeed, the punishment for your sins" is from the PS2 and PC game CHAOS LEGION made by Capcom. Rent it at Blockbuster; it's a fun game.
Please review and hope to see ya on the 27th!
Oh, and umm… no cougars, dogs, or chameleons were hurt in this production…
Thank you.