Chapter 7
"Then you destroyed that house?" Yue demanded of the boy.
"That is correct. Although I was more aiming at him rather than the building. He was only a foot note in this chapter though." The impostor jabbed a finger at Sakura. "It's YOU who caused all this!" The calm composure was gone and in its place burned a fiery rage.
"What did we do to you? Why are you doing this to us?!" Sakura cried and the man exploded. His skin burnt to shreds and a dark fiery shadow rose from the ashes. Once the smoke and fire had cleared a middle aged man stood in place of Julius' figure.
"You killed my children! You couldn't just lie down and let yourselves be consumed; you just had to destroy them!" The man raged at her.
"What are you talking about? We haven't killed anyone!" Sakura protested. The man began to walk towards her, his steps seeming to echo forever and his figure growing in size as it loomed before her.
"Twins. A boy and a girl. You killed them both, you and your friends. They were my children so I'll take all your lives as payment for your acts!" The man shouted and rose a hand up in the air, ready to strike down but Yue put himself between their attacker and Sakura.
"You won't lay a hand on the mistress!" He declared but the man's hand swept down and he was thrown to the side like a rag doll.
"Yue-san!" Sakura screamed as her guardian smashed into the wall and slid down it, unconscious.
"You, your friends, all your kin! Their lives belong to me now and I will take them all!" The man roared and his arm rose once again to thrash the quaking girl and her brother into the afterlife.
*****
Several wolf-like creatures searched through the ruins, batting aside the rubble with strength their paws should not have been able to exert. Suddenly a howl ripped the night in two, causing the other wolf creatures to look up and converge on the sound.
The first wolf-like monster, jaws red with the dried blood of the now entirely consumed policeman, had uncovered a door down from what had been the utility room into a cellar which had been safe from the collapsing of the building. Rubble had smashed through the weak trapdoor in the floor but this had been swept aside by the creature and now the pack herded down into the hidden room.
The room opened up into a long, plain, stone corridor which the pack prowled down in exploration. Small dark drops on the floor showed a small blood trail and once this had been noticed the pack sped up, following the trail to a door set in the side of the corridor. The door was open and inside was a gym like room with various weapons arrayed on the walls; but two particularly ornate looking containers were open and empty.
The blood trail continued from the room and down the corridor. Realisation dawned on the pack and they howled in unison, attempting to communicate with their master. However, from underground and at such a distance their effort was futile, and far too late.
*****
Sakura opened her eyes hesitantly when there was a scream of pain from the man in front of her. He had stepped back and was clutching his right hand, the one he had been about to strike her with, in his left. An arrow had pierced the man's hand and blood was trickling down the shaft and onto the floor.
Another arrow took the man in the shoulder and threw him onto his back where he squirmed in pain, clutching at his shoulder and trying to wrap his body around his injured hand at the same time.
"You bastard… you should be dead!" He howled over Sakura's shoulder. The girl turned hesitantly around at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind them.
"You won't kill the last of the Ragnar family line so easily."
Sakura didn't dare believe that the boy standing in front of her was Julius, the real one, alive and well. He half turned to face her as if he had sensed her reluctance to open herself to fresh pain and trickery.
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan, it's the real me this time." His soft expression turned hard as he faced the man on the floor again.
"He's been the one causing all this trouble; I barely escaped when he followed me home and nearly caught me off guard; but that's come to an end now." Julius lifted his bow again and pulled the string back, an arrow already nocked.
"An end? Oh no, this just makes it more interesting!" The man struggled to his feet, the pain apparently forgotten. "I always have a contingency plan." He stepped aside to offer a view of Shaoran struggling to his feet, sword in hand.
"Shaoran! Just stay there, try not to move!" Sakura called to him but the boy suddenly whipped around and lunged at her with his weapon. Julius stepped in the way, bow dropped on the ground and half drew his sword from its scabbard at his waist and twisted enough to roll Shaoran's blade away from both himself and Sakura.
"Shaoran?" Sakura asked, sounding as if she were about to lose her sanity.
"He's being controlled, Sakura-chan." Julius intervened on her mental breakdown.
"Controlled?" Sakura repeated as she remembered when Eriol had used strings to control Shaoran's body, although this looked different.
"He said something about chains back in the cinema before he fainted, right? Spell pieces can be broken up like links and then reformed to make a chain and complete the spell, that's what's happened here. He must have forgotten about it earlier since nothing had happened but his body isn't under his own control. He's not even conscious."
Sakura saw that the boy was right, her beloved's eyes weren't open and his breathing was too shallow for someone moving around actively.
"What do we do then? We can't hurt Shaoran!" Sakura was all too aware of the grievous wound the boy had suffered and the fact that with every passing minute his life was ticking away.
"Use the Shield Card, it'll block the magic control that man has. The spell will degenerate and become nothing after it's been disconnected from the caster." Julius knocked away several of Shaoran's forced attacks and then unsheathed his weapon fully and stepped into the guard form. Behind him Sakura had unleashed the power of her staff and the Shield Card had flown to her hand from the deck in her pocket.
"Shield!" A blue light surrounded Shaoran in a hemisphere and almost immediately he collapsed in a heap, purple light filtered from his body in small sparkles as the spell that had controlled him was broken apart.
Julius looked immediately for their remaining enemy but he had vanished already, taking his chance to escape while he could. The boy sheathed his sword and turned to Touya tiredly.
"Could you find a couple of nurses? The two of us need looking at." Touya nodded and ran down the corridor without further ado shouting at the top of his lungs for help. Julius propped himself up against the wall and slowly allowed himself to slid down it until he was sitting on the floor.
"Ragnar-san, will Shaoran be alright?" Sakura turned to the boy as she sought comfort. Yukito, transformed back from Yue, was crouching by Julius who didn't reply to the girl's question.
"He's unconscious."
Yukito took his hand away from the younger boy's chest where he had been checking for injuries. Blood dripped from his fingers and trickled down his hand and arm.
*****
"There goes that backup plan." The old man growled as one of the slaved spirits of his castle tended to his injuries, using its own life energy to heal his wounds. A wolf-like creature padded its way into the room and sat down before the man, opening its jaws.
"We found his trail at the house, an underground training room and escape route, by the looks of it. He must have gotten inside before the building collapsed on top of him." The wolf spoke in a peculiarly human sounding voice. The man scowled at this news which would have been useful earlier but was not just an annoyance.
"Get your packs together. The next full moon is in eight days, be ready by then. We shall obliterate them once and for all, and all of that cursed town." The wolf growled its assent before prowling out of the room and leaving the man to his thoughts.
"Eight days and I will come for you." He clenched his fists, now both healed. "It will end then."