Ch. 33: The road of destruction
Alma and Kanda had given a real lecture about Crows to Allen, Lavi, Tykki and Road. They had talked about their fighting style, presenting examples with the expertise of somebody who had witnessed the Crows fighting. Lavi wondered if they had seen it in the Sixth Institute and who it was that the Crows had been fighting. They talked emotionlessly about skills that exceeded the "wings" everybody knew of, crushing whatever ideas the other four might have had about this being an easy fight. Their words still echoed in Lavi's head as he stood amidst the ruins, on Kanda's left side, waiting for Lvellie to arrive.
They had gotten a proper rest, waiting for Lvellie, and had changed from their worn out, traveling clothes into new ones that did not protect from the cold but allowed them comfort and freedom of movement that they would need standing against the Crows. They had trained a bit to refresh their skills and had generally done everything they could to be well prepared. Wanting to feel slightly more confident, Lavi took out his faithful hammer and enlarged it somewhat, mostly extending the handle, to prop it comfortably on his shoulder. On Alma's right side, Allen who looked like a Noah again invoked his Innocence as well. The only one who would not have to do so was Kanda, because "just" Mugen was deadly enough for the Crows.
Lavi stiffened, with nerves and anticipation, when the first of their enemies entered the space they were in, encircled with half-crumbled stone walls. Finally, he thought despite the nerves. The Crow stood still for a moment, assessing them and they allowed him, knowing that they did not look injured and worn out anymore, belying all the reports that had been made throughout their journey. The Crow's eyes widened when they landed on Allen and Lavi smirked, imagining what the man must be thinking: "this is a trap". It was a trap, Lavi thought with grim determination. The Crow called out something Lavi didn't care to understand and another ran into Lavi's field of vision to keep an eye on them while the first one turned back. As though they would attack already, Lavi mocked in his head. If they wanted it, they could have shot at them all while they were on their way up. The thought that maybe they should have crossed his mind, but he waved it away: Lvellie needed to know why he died.
'They're here, inspector,' the Crow yelled. Oh yes we are, Lavi thought, gripping the handle of the hammer tighter. 'It looks dangerous. Maybe you should stay back.'
'Nonsense,' replied a voice that Lavi had learned to fear somewhat. Moments later Lvellie showed up with a smirk. 'I have to say that I was suspicious from the very beginning, but here you are. Give back the Heart and repent and I might be merciful,' he said. Alma snorted.
'There never was the Heart here, inspector,' he informed the man, pulling up his sleeve with the obvious intent of invoking his blades. Kanda drew Mugen and the two brothers, standing next to each other, turned minimally away from each other, so that they were covering each other's backs somewhat. Their intent to fight was more than obvious at that point.
For a moment, Lvellie seemed nonplussed, then worried for just a brief instant and finally mocking. With the corners of his eye, Lavi noted a number of Crow heads poking out over the tops of the walls, effectively surrounding them. At least as many Crows as were on the walls appeared behind Lvellie, all ready to fight, along with a terrified looking woman in an Exorcist uniform: Miranda Lotto. Lavi smiled at her encouragingly and saw the doubts painted on her face.
'So you brats want to kill me here? And then what? When the Order announces you wanted and sends its hounds in the earnest, will you run from them as well as from the Earl?' Lvellie asked, his mocking tone clearly saying that he wasn't taking the threat seriously. Despite his nerves, Lavi smirked, but it was Allen who answered.
'The Millennium Earl is dead, Lvellie,' he said it a mock-worried tone and confusion clouded Lvellie's face. Lavi glanced to the side to see Allen look at Lvellie with a creepy, somewhat bloodthirsty smirk. Even he felt like shuddering, although he restrained himself. 'Do you think you'll pose us a bigger challenge?' Allen asked back and now Lvellie finally looked scared.
'Lotto, activate that protection,' he yelled, not looking back, his wide eyes glued to the Fourteenth Noah. Halfway through his order, however, with a perfect timing and an immaculate suit, Tykki appeared from underground right behind the terrified woman, putting one hand over her mouth and the index finger of the other across his lips. When there was no reply to his order, Lvellie yelled again, turning back and his yell died with a strangled kind of surprised noise. Tykki smirked coldly behind his finger and then let the ground swallow him, taking Miranda Lotto with him.
A moment of stunned silence followed Tykki's and Miranda's disappearance. Lavi wanted to laugh at the faces of the Crows, looking around, but it would have destroyed the atmosphere and the Bookman's apprentice knew how important the right atmosphere was. He only wished he could see Lvellie's face and was awarded for his patience when the inspector turned to look at them again with that wild gleam in his eyes that spoke of fear bordering on madness.
'Kill them,' Lvellie ordered, his desperation audible in the words. Many things happened in an eye blink again. There was a collective shout of the Crows, a hand grabbed Lavi's shirt and he was pulled to the side roughly, nearly losing his balance.
'Keep up, rabbit,' Kanda growled at him and Lavi realised that he had been pulled away by him. Where they had been standing just an eye blink ago hundreds of binding wings collided and fell to the ground, useless. Beyond that mess, on the opposite side, Alma let go of Allen's waistcoat and let blades grow out of his arm.
A Crow had only one set of each wings, Lavi remembered from Alma's and Kanda's lecture and, before the Crows had the chance to move, he cast a look around, recording everything with Bookman's ease. All the ones on the walls had lost their binding wings, he saw and yelled that to his comrades.
'Burn them,' Kanda said and, without hesitation, Lavi invoked a fiery dragon, only big enough to incinerate the useless rectangles on the ground. Some Crows yelled in outrage, some attacked.
This time Lavi was ready and jumped away on his own. Kanda had gone in the opposite direction, multiplying the targets for the Crows. Allen and Alma had done the same and Lavi called up another dragon to incinerate more of the wings. Too bad this fire wouldn't work on the Crows, he thought.
As Alma and Kanda knew the Crows so the Crows seemed to know them. They descended upon the two brothers in packs, jumping from the walls with agility. Alma ducked another portion of wings, while Kanda slashed them all in half. Allen grabbed the Crow who attacked him in Crown Belt and Lavi realised that there was one heading towards him as well.
Only one, eh? He smirked, proud of himself as he sidestepped the wings and swung the hammer at the unexpecting opponent. The sound of the cracking skull, when the hammer connected with the target, would have made Lavi wince if it wasn't so important that he pays attention to his surroundings.
The Crow crushed against a wall with another sickening, cracking sound at the same time as Lavi heard a swish of something arriving very fast at him. As he turned to see a Crow landing too close for him to use the hammer efficiently, he felt a burning pain in his right forearm. He would have screamed but the Crow was already raising his hand and Lavi saw the blade rushing to meet him, too fast and too close.
He was yanked backwards roughly. As he stumbled, there was a swish of cut air, a crack of metal against bone and a blood-freezing yell. The Crow's arm flew free from his body, sprinkling droplets of blood as it went.
'I said keep up,' Kanda growled and Lavi looked at him, taking in the blood on his clothes and face that didn't seem to be his. The samurai looked around quickly and made an unsatisfied kind of noise. 'Those idiots keep waiting for me to throw stuff,' he complained. 'As if I would waste something like the Fourth Illusion on them,' he added. Lavi frowned at his tone, but dismissed the thought that popped into his head. Instead, he noted and recorded the momentary wince on Kanda's face as the samurai changed his grip on Mugen.
Glancing away, Lavi saw Allen break the neck of a Crow he had immobilised with the Crown Belt in the far end of their battlefield. Off to the side, Alma was dancing gracefully between three opponents, cutting and slashing as he avoided their attacks in one fluent move after the other. Where was-
A gurgling sound and a feeling of wet droplets on his face snapped him out of his thoughts. There was a Crow with a sliced throat, his head all but severed, crumbling to the ground. He didn't have to look far for the cause and his eyes met Kanda's annoyed glare.
'Which part of keep up do you not-' Kanda started with irritation, but cut himself off when Lavi swung the hammer behind him, crushing the skull of another Crow. Kanda glanced back and "tsked" with a frown. 'Point taken,' he said and then he was gone. Some gratitude that was, Lavi thought with annoyance, back to looking for Lvellie, this time watching out for the Crows. Thankfully the ones nearby seemed to be occupied by Kanda and Mugen.
Not all, he noticed on time, turning to face the Crow running at him. He slammed him with the hammer, but the man half dodged the blow and Lavi was hard pressed for avoiding a bout of flame wings. Damn those things, he thought and kicked the Crow, but only got his foot caught and twisted, sending him spinning away with a shout. He managed to land on his feet by some miracle and, desperate to not be saved by Kanda again, he retracted the handle of the hammer and then extended it, piercing the Crow with the sharp end and pushing him away.
His opponent landed limp, crushing into another Crow, on the other end of the battlefield imposed by the walls that were now not only half-crumbled but bloodied. Oh well, not his cleaning, Lavi thought and finally saw Lvellie. Tykki was holding him, restraining his hands behind his back and whispering into his ear. Whatever it was that he was saying was not innuendos, Lavi mused, because Lvellie looked outright terrified. Then again, it could be because he was held by a Noah, Lavi amended, when Lvellie screamed as though he was torn apart: Tykki put a hand straight through him and said something with a smirk.
He looked away from the scene, only to notice that Allen was surrounded and bound by a tight ring of wings that Lavi was too far away to recognise. With a curse, he invoked a fiery dragon and sent it there, hoping he would not be too late. He never found out, because the Crows got pierced with sharpened candles and Road jumped in front of Allen, saying something angrily. Lavi was too far to hear what over Lvellie's screaming, but it didn't matter.
Another, short scream joined Lvellie's momentarily and Lavi turned to see Alma piercing the abdomen of the last of his opponents and looking around for more, nearly completely covered in blood. There were a number of bodies around him, tracing roughly a circle of the radius of his longest blade.
The screaming died down and Lavi glanced towards Lvellie to see him trembling, obviously past the stage of screaming and well into "faint from fear", but not quite yet there. Tykki whispered something with a sadistic smile and Lvellie whimpered, the sound clearly echoing in the deep silence.
Such a silence could only mean that all the fights were finished and Lavi looked around to make sure, but there were only bodies and puddles of blood, slowly soaking the ground. Allen and Road had done a quick job of the Crows around them and were stepping away from the bodies pierced with candles still burning, creating a macabre tableau. The furthest from Lavi, Kanda was wiping Mugen clean methodically, seemingly entirely focused on that activity.
That was it? It seemed so easy compared to Earl, Lavi thought and hissed in pain. That was right, he remembered, his right forearm was rather wounded. He looked at the bleeding forearm and clutched it with his left hand, looking back up at the battlefield.
Kanda sheathed Mugen, winced momentarily and then glared with such hatred that Lavi shivered, even though the glare wasn't directed at him. He followed Kanda's line of sight to Lvellie. Ah yes, what were they to do with that guy? Alma and Allen, both with their Innocence revoked, were walking up to their last enemy alive. Kanda joined them, still glaring murderously, and so Lavi moved there as well.
'So what-' Tykki started but a sound of footsteps made them all freeze. Were there more Crows? They all looked towards the sound and Lavi nearly laughed when he saw that it was only Miranda, looking lost and worried and then completely stunned and a bit green on the face.
'Oh my God,' she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. Lavi winced, realising how this must look to the poor woman. 'You've killed them all,' she whispered, looking a bit green on her face.
'Almost,' Kanda said emotionlessly. The face of Kaori flashed in front of Lavi's face and he smirked at the resemblance, despite the situation. Leaning against the wall, Miranda started crying, but Kanda already looked back to Lvellie.
'So what do you want to do with this guy?' Tykki asked in a light tone.