Scroll Twenty
A/N: Edited on 12/11/15
Sesshomaru sliced at the dead demons with Tokijin, which flared in a blue light at each swing. Sesshomaru gritted his fangs slightly. There were so many. The Demon Lord was glad he had not brought Rin with him.
"Sango!" The monk shouted throwing as many spells on the ground around the demon exterminator's feet. She jerked her ankle away from the prying skeletal hand and jumped on the demon cat's back. Sesshomaru turned to the priestess and his unconscious brother. She had shot her second arrow, the pink light penetrating the rising wall of dead demons. The Demon Lord found himself a top one of the huts. The dead were clawing the molding wood trying to tear him down from his perch.
They had no scent, no eyes, and they were a dead army Sesshomaru didn't recognize. Their bones cracking and popping as they moved their stiff non-flesh limbs. He felt Tensegia vibrate next to him. Did it want to wielded? Of course it wanted to be wielded, Tensegia was the sword of Heaven. Its main purpose was to kill what was not of this world. Sesshomaru quickly sheathed Tokijin and jumped to another roof before the hands took hold of his ankles.
"Die." Sesshomaru said, ripping the healing fang from its sheath and slicing thru the bones. They crippled and fell to the earth in dust, but more quickly replaced them swarming him as if they were ants.
"Lord Tougaaaaaa…" They all moaned. Sesshomaru froze. Why are these dead demons speaking his father's name?
"Killlll. You betrayed usssss." They all moaned. "Weee will haveee vengeance!"
"Kagome!" Sesshomaru turned towards InuYasha's human group to see them fighting off the dead demons to the best of their potential. The exterminator jumped from the demon cat's back, racing to a skeleton nearly on top of the priestess.
"Let go of me!" The priestess cried as the dead came closer to her. Her bow and arrow had been knocked from her hands.
"HIRAIKOTSU!" The boomerang came flying and sliced through the dead almost on top of the priestess. She curled into a ball as the bone came twirling back around and taking the remaining out.
"Lady Kagome! Are you all right?!" The monk cried. He raced to her side and helped her steadily to her feet.
"I'm fine!" She yelped. "InuYasha please wake up!" She jerked free of the monk's arms and knelt down to InuYasha shaking his shoulder roughly. Sesshomaru jumped from his perch onto the table from where the spear had been embedded. The spear was nothing but black dust now. Standing up, Sesshomaru surveyed the scene in front of him. Dead demons were coming from the ground, as if it was water and not dirt. Their empty sockets and opened mouths moaning Sesshomaru's father's name as if it was a curse. Totosai's words came back to him.
"He had to kill every one of them…"
Because of a possession? Was that entirely necessary? Sesshomaru couldn't believe his father would have made such a rash decision. The Great Dog Demon Lord surly would have tried a more different approach, or at least, the Demon Lord that Sesshomaru knew him as. No wonder these demons felt betrayed, but Sesshomaru felt a tang of guilt for his father at the bottom of his stomach. Why? Why should he care what his father did all those years ago? Why did he feel pity for these demons, who at the moment, wanted to kill him?
"Are you going to…cough…stand there or what bastard?" Sesshomaru turned slowly to see his brother sitting up holding the wound on his chest, glaring at him from where he lay.
"InuYasha, you're alright!" The priestess collapsed on him.
"Duh!" His brother spat. "You think a simple stab would kill me?"
"No, but it took you out for a bit." The monk corrected. "But now, I'm afraid, is not a good time to be chatting."
"Uh, why? I think…oh." InuYasha froze as more demons emerged from the ground, moaning and groaning the name of the previous Demon Lord. Their vacant eyes set on both Sesshomaru and InuYasha. "Why are they saying our father's name?"
"He was the one who took them to the next world." Sesshomaru answered.
"Oh." InuYasha frowned. Hoisting his bulky body, his brother still clutched the blood-red wound. "Shit, why isn't this healing?"
"Lord Tougaaaaaa…"
Sesshomaru turned towards them. Rising Tensegia, he jumped, swinging the blade and casting the blue light around the clearing. Jumping to the other side, Sesshomaru surveyed the damage. They were just rebuilding themselves. Sesshomaru gritted his teeth, this was too familiar. This was like Naraku; cutting and cutting at his body, and not getting anywhere.
"Killll…"
"This Sesshomaru will kill you." Was the only response the Demon Lord gave the dead. He raised Tensegia for another blow, but was cut short by a yell.
"Lord Sesshomaru! Get out the way. I'll suck them into my wind tunnel!"
Sesshomaru looked up. The three humans were on the demon cat's back, the monk clutching the beads that sealed his air whip. Sesshomaru sheathed the fang, and bounded over to the other side from the rooftops of the huts. His usual instincts were not to listen to orders from anyone, but he was not interested in being sucked into a void that was created by Naraku.
"WIND TUNNEL!" The monk cried.
"Damn it!" InuYasha was clutching to a tree not far from Sesshomaru. "Watch where you're aiming that thing idiot!"
"Monk, don't push yourself!" The demon exterminator yelled.
"Ugh, damn it!" The monk held his hand out, the air whip sucking in the moaning bones. Sesshomaru watched as they began to disappear, but as hope was arising, more began pulling themselves from the soft ground. Many became sucked up into the air and disappearing into the void.
"I hope he can keep this up!" InuYasha grunted. Sesshomaru didn't respond, he clutched a large branch from a nearby tree. The whirlwind of wind taking his silver hair and blowing it into his face. Suddenly a large shake rattled the earth causing the demon cat to falter in her flight, and forcing the monk to close his cursed hand.
"What was that?" InuYasha asked.
"Nothing to our benefit." Sesshomaru replied.
"I know that!" InuYasha spat. "Why do even ask you?" The ground shook, the trees rattled, and Sesshomaru felt the branch he had been clinging to snap away from the trunk. "What is going on Totosai?!" InuYasha shouted to the cow that was way up in the sky.
"How would I know?!" The sword smith cried. "You woke them!"
"Did not!"
"Brother that is enough." Sesshomaru glared. InuYasha just snorted. Sesshomaru took Tensegia, and narrowed his eyes. The dead were rising from the ground, and there seemed to be no end to them. He needed to be swallowed in, in order to reach the source of them all. Sheathing Tensegia once more, he jumped up. This time he let a tentacle like bone wrap around his ankle, and jerk him down to the waiting mass of the dead.
"Sesshomaru what are you doing?!" The exterminator cried.
"Do not interfere!" Sesshomaru bellowed, and the dark sky was the last thing he saw until he was dragged into the sea of bones. Sesshomaru felt tips and teeth jag into his flesh and armor, but there was very little pain. He jerked one of his arms to the healing fang.
"General of Lord Tougaaaaaa…DIE!"
Sesshomaru jerked his head up to the best of his ability just to see a large mouth diving towards his face. Its jaws wide open. "Damn!" Sesshomaru hissed. He jerked his free arm and stopped the jaws from biting his face off. He unleashed his poison on the rotting corpse. Suddenly he felt like he was being squeezed by large coils of a snake. And they all suddenly released. Sesshomaru looked up to see the dark sky.
"Hey asshole! How about you think before you dive into a pool of dead demons!" Sesshomaru glared to see his brother standing above him, all ten claw attacks slicing at the demons, cutting them into pieces.
"I do brother. I do not need your assistance!" Sesshomaru hissed.
"Yea right." InuYasha grunted. "You're a bastard you know that?"
"Lord Tougaaaaaa!" The dead suddenly uncoiled from Sesshomaru and encircled InuYasha.
"Hey! I'm not my old man, damn it!" InuYasha hissed. He swung his claws, cutting a head from a bony spine. "There are so many!"
"Take this!" The priestess let another arrow go, releasing InuYasha and Sesshomaru from their bony prison. Sesshomaru and InuYasha landed on the same rooftop, the dead completely ignoring the humans above. The started to converge and encircled the hut they were perched upon.
"Looks like their target is us, hue?"
Sesshomaru gave InuYasha a cold look. "They do not believe we are us."
"What?"
"They think they are still in the battle all those years ago." Sesshomaru stated. "They believe we are our father."
"What, why?" InuYasha glared.
"We have his scent."
"Don't we have our mothers too?" InuYasha spat.
"They only smell our fathers. Nothing more." Sesshomaru glared and swung his poison claw as a head reached the edge of the rooftop.
"Great…" InuYasha groaned. Sesshomaru glared at their situation. It was quite simple to flee to the air, but only a coward would run. Sesshomaru was no coward. Removing Tensegia once more he sliced the skeletons over and over. InuYasha with his claw attack, flung all ten golden blades slicing the bones as if they were paper. The boomerang came again, followed by another purification arrow, and a few more spells. They had all combined their strengths, and they were getting nowhere.
"Take this!" InuYasha swung Tessaiga out and slammed it into the mass of demons. Tessaiga shot bits of bone into the air. Spells came flying from the monk, purifying the bits that came close to the human band.
"Lord Tougaaaaaa…" The dead kept moaning.
"Damn it! If I hear my old man's name come from you idiots again, I'll crush you!" InuYasha bellowed. Sesshomaru made a mental note to punish InuYasha for that rude comment. Four skeleton tentacles shot out from the mass and quickly wrapped around each of InuYasha's limbs. His brother was still trying to lift the fang again, and had been caught off guard.
"Shit!" InuYasha yelled. Sesshomaru jumped up to avoid the same fate, and to his astonishment the tentacles sucked InuYasha into the ground.
"Fool!" Sesshomaru bellowed.
"InuYasha!" The priestess cried in horror. To Sesshomaru's surprise, the priestess made a faithful leap off the demon cat's back. Sesshomaru felt a better judgment come over him and grabbed her before she hit the demon mass.
"InuYasha! InuYasha!" Sesshomaru had no idea how his brother could stand such annoying human. She was careless and clumsy. This was becoming an impossible task. He could not fight and take care of weak humans at the same time! He threw her on the table and gave her an ice stare. "You are to stay here." He snarled at her.
"But…"
"Priestess, that is an order!" She kept quiet. Sesshomaru was beyond agitated. First InuYasha, now his human group! This was far more pushing his limits of control. He didn't like jumping around trying to help others. He was his own warrior, and this was his own fight.
"Lord Touga!"
Sesshomaru froze, that was not a moaning sound of weak dead demons. The voice was strong, yet still foreign to Sesshomaru's ears. The earth rattled, causing the priestess to slip from the table, and Sesshomaru grabbing on the edge of it to keep balance.
"Kirara!" The exterminator yelled. The demon cat dove to the ground and the two humans jumped onto the table. The exterminator grabbed the priestess's hand and hoisted her back up.
"Sango, what is going on?!" The priestess cried.
"I don't know!"
"A larger demon must be present!" The monk yelled. Sesshomaru looked at the demons. They had suddenly becoming less congested, and they appeared to be making way for something big. Sesshomaru felt his eyes widen a bit as a large skeleton hand slowly made its way up from the soft ground. They all froze. A small gasp could be heard, but Sesshomaru didn't know who did it. His focus was on the large demon that was soon to emerge. And in one violent burst, the demon roared knocking them all off their feet, and sending them flying back. Sesshomaru rolled and swung around. Regaining his balance, and looked up a skeleton as large as father.
"Gods…" The word breathed out of his mouth before he could stop himself. The scent was barley there, but this was the old Dog Demon Lord of the Northern lands. He was supposedly to have been as strong as the Lord Touga, and maybe more then that even. The large empty sockets stared down at them. No eyes to show anger, the teeth grinding as hard as it could as it turned its large head looking to its left hand. And in that left hand was InuYasha, unconscious again.
"How weak are you brother?" Sesshomaru let out a small grunt.
"InuYasha!" The priestess screamed.
The dead Northern Lord didn't flinch at the priestess's voice. Had he even heard her? Sesshomaru didn't want the death of InuYasha to come in the hands of something dead. No, that was going to be by his hand. Not that of a dead Lord.
"To who are you?" Sesshomaru dared to ask. He hopped onto the closet hut, his eyes glaring into the two empty sockets.
"Kill the general." Was all it said. What?! Sesshomaru felt blind anger take him for a brief second. A general?!
"Finally, Lord Touga, you will pay for your betrayal to us!" The demon opened its mouth to chop InuYasha's body in half, when an arrow shot out snagging the cheek bone. The demon roared in anger, and hissed. The vacant eyes turning to the small human band. Sesshomaru felt shock come over him. His brother was the one they thought was his father. Not him! He was his brother's general! Oh no, Sesshomaru growled. That is not how I see things.
And then it hit him, like a bundle of flowers Rin had shoved in his face. InuYasha was almost an exact copy of the late Western Demon Lord. The hair, the facial features, the fur, the armor, just about everything. InuYasha was truly Lord Touga's son. The two purple marks on InuYasha's face were the same. Unlike his two red streaks on each cheek, and a crescent moon on his forehead, the mark of his mother. Sesshomaru had taken just as much of his mother as did of his father. InuYasha had took his mothers, but her blood had somehow had become insignificant. Had vanished, and all of father's demon blood took what was missing, making InuYasha an exact copy of their father. The only thing that seemed entirely different, were his ears still screaming half-demon. The two triangular ears were still there, not showing any sign of changing.
"Uh…what?" Sesshomaru shook his head and looked up. He saw InuYasha holding his head, apparently dazed. "What the hell?!"
"You bring humans into this war now, you pathetic dog?" Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at the large dead demon.
InuYasha spat. "What war?!" Sesshomaru saw him yell. "This isn't a war! This is some stupid curse someone put on you to kill everything you see!" InuYasha shot his claw attack out, slicing into the large hand that had wrapped around his torso, and jumped free. He turned around, everyone's attention on the dead Demon Lord.
"InuYasha!"
"Be quiet wench and stay down there!"
The dead Northern Lord charged, his hand reaching for InuYasha again. InuYasha dodged the grab and landed on the large skeleton's shoulder, and began hacking at the bone of the neck.
Sesshomaru suddenly felt a tug on his foot. He had forgotten that the smaller demons were still after him. General, I am no general to a used to be half-demon. Unleashing Tensegia once again, he sliced at the Lord's face, a devastating blow for such a big target.
"Fool!" The dead Lord bellowed, "I will not be killed by you twice!" Sesshomaru barley dodged the large hand, and jumped onto a nearby tree. InuYasha did as well. Swinging his claw attack in an arc, slicing more and more bits of bone off. He still had not fully gotten control of his new claw attack and with Tessaiga still too heavy, InuYasha had no real battle plan but to kill with what he had.
"Hiss…" The Lord snatched at InuYasha again, but InuYasha was quicker and sliced into the sharp teeth, slicing a good three off from the bony jaw. "I'll kill you!" The Lord snapped with his jaw at the bouncing half-demon now demon and successfully clomped down on his flaying right arm.
"Shit!" InuYasha cursed.
"Fool you are brother." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. He jumped up and ran up the shoulder, slicing at the skull for where an ear used to be. The dead Demon Lord paid no head to the swipe.
"Finally, you'll pay for your betrayal." It hissed. Sesshomaru's eyes widened.
"InuYasha!" A stick came flying at the skull. Sesshomaru looked at the priestess, she apparently had run out of arrows.
"HIRAIKOTSU!" The boomerang bone came flying at the jaw that had trapped InuYasha's right arm, smashing some teeth in. But the ones that were still digging deeper into InuYasha's flesh were still attached to the jaw line.
"Son of a…" InuYasha snarled. "I'll kill you!" He jerked his free arm into a large tooth and shot his claw attack out, penetrating every corner of the skull. The dead Demon Lord groaned, as if it had eyes they would have shut. Sesshomaru was only a few inches from being hit by one of InuYasha's failed attempts at getting his arm free.
"No…not this time FRIEND!" The word sounded like a curse and a regret. Sesshomaru dove from the shoulder, slicing at the jaw and shoving the fang into the mouth to keep it open. He felt two bony tentacles wrap around his upper shoulders and yank him down, and he pulled Tensegia with him. For a second there was nothing heard, except for the 'whoosh' of being pulled down to the ground. Then the blood curling scream, that deafened Sesshomaru's ears. Then liquid, it coated him.
Sesshomaru crashed into the mass of dead demons. He was to stunned. The blood, not the demon's, and not his. The blood coated his hair, making the silver turn brown, it stuck to his kimono, his fur, and his armor. He felt a flash of memory. The arm that half-demon had severed! It hurt, it hurt to the point he couldn't stay in his true form! Pain too much pain! Sesshomaru opened his eyes only to hear another scream, a scream of a horrified human priestess.
"INUYASHA!"
He felt the demon tighten around him, but he was oblivious. It was not his arm, it was not his blood. It was his brother's. Sesshomaru looked up, his world still red from the blood dripping down from above. For there InuYasha lay. Unconscious and eyes open, yet so blank. His mouth opened in a scream of pain, then he shut them. His body went limp. A stump was all that was left of InuYasha's right arm.
Sesshomaru felt pity, and yet a strange calmness. "What a coincidence. For I have just grown my arm back, and yet InuYasha, it is fate that you are to lose yours."
"INUYASHA, NO!" Sesshomaru heard the priestess scream again.